the art of receptionism

i have nothing to blog about. really, i don't. writer's block, i think is the sophisticated term, but then again, that makes me sound like a prestigious writer who should be sipping tea with J.K. Rowling. which, if i did, i would have blogged about already.

so, here i am with nothing to blog about because even though i do have writer's block, i am not a writer and i did not sip tea with J.K. Rowling.

so, i will tell you a few things that have happened in the last month. (sadly, there are only a few...)

as of two weeks ago, i am a receptionist. that's right, i am that girl that answers the phone and says "thank you for calling ________, how can i help you?" and "please hold" and "let me check her schedule and see when we can squeeze you in."

i know! i sound like an adult! the last time i played receptionist was twelve years ago via barbie and pet shop.

it's not all fun and games, you know. it so happens that the place that i do all my receptioning is at a hand and foot salon/boutique called nailed. this week, my manager said "we're training a new technician. do you want a mani/pedi?" i'll tell you...i hated it. i kept thinking "what do you people want from me? i came here to recept and recept i will do! leave me be and stop massaging my leg and putting pretty colors on my toes!"

it was awful.

i just got back from our house in st. george where i had a love affair with red rocks, sandy dunes, and chuck-a-rama pull aparts. i met a ligitimate cowboy. white ponytail, leathery skin, turquoise jewelry and all. (except for the fact that he's actually a surgeon.) he let us watch him train his horse with a mechanical bull. we're still talking about it.

last but not least, i got a kindle for christmas! love it. obsessed with it. i just got my case yesterday in the mail and i about died of happiness.

so, until i have something more exciting to blog about (i promise, i will!), i am answering phone calls, kindle-ing it up, dreaming of swimming in a vat of pull aparts all while watching reruns of modern family and generally loving every second of watching phil dunfey pretend to be a man.

word of the day

thomas (tho`-mas)

n.

1. an angel sent from heaven in the form of a white-haired, blue-eyed kitty cat.

2. a carnivorous mammal who endures hours of being lugged around by ten year old girls playing dress up.

"just one more hour of playtime and i will be free to sleep and and nag rachael for lunch meat all i want," thought thomas dreamily as she let emma and her friends put knit hats and scarves all over her.

synonyms: tommy, doomy (a play off of tommy), tom cat, t-jiminator, jim, jim cat, and wom. the origins of these names go too far back and cannot be traced. it is reported that thomas responds to all of said names, even wom.

no jalepeno ranch

if there is one person that is really getting on my nerves during finals week...it's the guy at the quesadilla stand in the cafeteria. the one who told me they were out of jalepeno ranch. do not tell me that this week. and then when the other guy asked me if i wanted pico de gallo and i said yes, the one guy said "we're out of that too. sorry...i was hungry!" hungry? you were hungry? i'm hungry! and i'm a paying customer! and you don't eat pico de gallo if you're hungry!

ok. that's all. i'm going to study chemistry. satan's pastime. either/or.

the pursuit of happiness

i would like to make a public announcement:

i am switching my major. (well, dropping it really.)

i am going into taxidermy.

let me tell you how i decided that: every day when morgan and i walk out of chemistry, we pass some professor's office who has posing, taxidermed animals up the wazoo. we have the exact same conversation everyday.

"let's go into taxidermy. i don't want to take any more chemistry classes."

"ok."

"we have this conversation every day."

"i know."

we even looked up the "12 easy steps to getting a taxidermy license!"

so. i will not show up for my finals, i will drop out of school, (and by doing so, spite everyone in the medical field who is inevitably crying because i will not be gracing their presence), and i will pursue that little piece of paper that lets me stuff animals with cotton.

angels and devils on my shoulders

sometimes i just get sick of college life. especially right now, when things are just stressful and not fun and i realize "i do not get a break from this." i know that life is not supposed to be just fun. sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. traveling is fun. studying for finals is not fun. and that's ok. but right now is not one of those fun times because i do have finals, i am drowning in homework, i don't know how i'm going to get it all done, and then when i do, there are more problems to worry about. like hounding managers to see if they read my application and will maybe possibly kindly have some mercy on me and give me a job? and making other really big decisions in my life that only affect me. those are the worst decisions to make. there is always something to worry about. always something lingering in the back of my mind. and i don't get a break from it! i know, welcome to life, rachael!

sometimes i imagine god laughing at me, blindly stumbling around this maze called life. in the dark. with no end in sight. with venomous demon snakes biting at my heels. and little angels with halos and devils with red suits and fiery pitchforks on my shoulders saying "go this way!" "no, this way!" i'm sure god's thinking "you're doing ok, kid," but that doesn't mean the venomous snakes don't bite and the angels and devils don't annoy the heck out of me. i wish i could smash them into little squash marks on my shirt.

it's ok. i'll get my finals done. i'll get a job at one of the places i applied and if not, i'll keep applying. i'll keep praying and get answers to my big decisions. sometime soon i'll feel reassured about my direction. that thought at least gives me peace.

"such a beautiful place...to be with friends"

my halloween masterpiece

what an emotional HP7 midnight screening. it was emotional for me and the rest of the wizarding community. if you didn't go see it....well, then i don't want a filthy mudblood like you dirtying my URL! i didn't realize i would cry so much. i cried on and off for the whole movie. like, slobbery, wipe-your-nose-on-your-shirt kind of crying. the whole movie and for at least half an hour after we got home. my roommate was seriously getting nervous around me. i don't think i can even handle going to see the last part. i think it may kill me! i'll probably explode out of sheer...harry potter-ness.

RIP DOBBY, THE GREATEST HOUSE ELF EVER TO ROAM FREE!!!!

"such a beautiful place...to be with friends"

p.s. the taste of mountain dew is the taste of homework all nighters and HP midnight premieres and those two things only.

i'm in love, i'm in love, and i don't care who knows it!

i have a love affair with the earth. i could spend all my time with it and never get bored. we are in love. me with the earth and the earth with me. we are so infatuated with each other that we give each other silly compliments like "mother nature, you are looking lovely today" and "rachael, i am giving rexburg this gorgeous sunset just for you." sometimes i under-appreciate it and i always run back saying "i don't know what i was thinking! the tv just has a way of luring me in! will you please forgive me??"....

....and it always does. because our love is strong.

most of the time i just feel like the earth wears the pants in our relationship. i need it more than it needs me. and i just think it is so mysterious and elusive. i never know what it's thinking! it doesn't talk very much. but it's always there.

have you ever read the alchemist? it's a good book. one of the main themes is the soul of the world. i totally think the earth has a soul, a spirit and it kind of freaks me out at the same time that it enamors me. it's alive and you can just sense it when you're surrounded by nature and you can hear the wind blowing, the river flowing, the grass growing. (alright, i only said that last one because i coulnd't pass up the perfect rhyme...pretty good, huh?) but i do think there is something magical about the earth. when i sit still, i can hear, or more likely, sense the earth's aliveness. when the earth is loud, like during a thunderstorm, it's alive. when it's quite, like during a silent, peaceful snowstorm, it's alive.

some of my best memories are when i am camping far away from civilization. it's cold, dark, the crickets are loudly harmonizing, the mountains are wisely looking down on me and i feel so ridiculously connected to the earth. not coincidentally, it's almost always when i feel the closest to the spirit. i can't be bothered with worldly problems when i'm in nature because nature is so....un-worldly.

today, i got out of my car after my new self-defense class (i'm stoked, by the way!) and there was the most beautiful sunset spilling over the mountains and some great second coming clouds. and the temple was right there, right across the street from me, next to this sunset, and i just stopped for a minute and stood in the parking lot and said a prayer of thanks, which i don't remember to do very often. and that was one of those moments when i remembered my sometimes-forgotten love affair with the earth.

but instead of bringing the earth flowers and chocolates, instead of giving it a back rub after a long day of work, i think it just wants me to appreciate it and remember it's existence. gosh, i love a low maintenance relationship.

love: we're so in it.