Oh no!

Lisa Simpson:   "I'm losing my perspicacity!"

Homer Simpson:   "It's always the last place you look."

The other day, I caught myself saying "Plivirege", instead of "Privilege", again.

Sheesh.

Randomness

Today I ate my food in bar or liquid form. 

 

Here are some examples: 

Banana & OJ smoothie for breakfast

Granola bar for snack

Cliff Bar for lunch

Protein bar and berry smoothie for dinner

I feel weird about that.  In fact, I would really like a salad now.  But it is now 10 pm and I'm done eating for the day.

I love my next door neighbor (or diagonal neighbor).  She is fantastic.  She was in the Dominican Republic visiting family and we were to keep an eye on her apartment.  Well, when she came back, she brought us a key chain and coin purse, and some Dominican candy (tastes like Dulce de Leche...mmmm. So good).

I keep thinking how I need to be a better neighbor and serve her more.  But she is always inviting my hubby and I over for dinners, birthday parties and bringing us back gifts!  She's such a sweetheart.  I think I'm going to write her a letter and tell her.

My pinky toe is fat.  I think I ought to ice it.

I leave for Poland in a week.  I am in Poland for 4 days, then I'm  taking my 4 days off to go visit friends in Stuttgart, Germany and then Basel, Switzerland.  I was feeling a little panicked about traipsing around Europe--navigating my way around, trying to get to know the culture, trying out my Polish/German.  

Yesterday, at my doctors appt, I was able to practice some of my Polish on the X-ray technician, who happened to be from Poland.  She said I had very good pronunciation and that when I get to Poland I should try Pickle Soup.  

I went to the orthopedic doc, to have him take a look at my left hip/thigh/ back area.  I've been having some chronic pain lately.   It appears that I injured the tendon that connects my hamstring to my "sit-bones", a while ago, and in my body's efforts to make it better, created little calcifications around the tendon, or something.    

I  put it off for so long, so then I started compensating in other areas, so now I have pain on my entire left side.   Word of wisdom to the young:   TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY!  Don't put off  going to see the doctor.  GO NOW!    But the Doc said it's nothing a little bit of massage therapy and Physical therapy could take care.  

I am grateful for my family.  For the words of love and wisdom and support.  I love my hubby. My ability to dance and use my body to express and share ideas.  What a wonderful blessing.

"Anna Needs"...

My husband shared with me a quite funny Google Game.  In the search engine you type, "[your name] needs" and pick the first 10 results (or the 10 best/funniest!).

Check it out.

1.  Anna needs to be excused from class today.

2. Anna needs to find a toilet.

3. Anna needs whatever sense of humor works for her.

4. Anna needs to balance out, and find peace without extremes. (how insightful)

5. Anna needs new ones (I jut have to add that this came from a plastic surgery website. It was in reference to breast implants.)

6. Anna needs to tone it down a bit.

7. Anna needs money.  Not for herself, but for her son. (riiiight...)

8. Anna needs to be held accountable.

9. Anna needs some media training.

10. Anna needs to clarify her expectations.

Let me know what you come up with!

Grateful for Primary

I have been teaching Primary for about a year now, ages 11-12.  And lately, I've been coming home so uplifted from the songs in singing time and inspired by my bright and interesting class.

What a wonderful blessing the gospel is!

You Know You're a New Yorker..

…you say "the city" and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan.

..when you're standing in a packed subway car with 200 hundred other people and everyone manages to avoid looking at each other

…you can pick out the tourists when they turn their heads to the "ladies and gentlemen this is an important announcement from the MTA" message

…when you're away from home, you miss "real" pizza and bagels.

…you can ignore homeless people without feeling too bad

…you can walk through "The City" for hours and not get tired but once your out of NYC and walk for 10 minutes you feel exhausted.

…rather than waiting safely on the sidewalk to cross the street, you wait inches away from speeding traffic waiting to cut through it.

…you have jaywalked in front of a cop. More than once. And they didn't care.

...you're 35 years old and don't have a driver's license.

...you ride in a subway car with no air conditioning, just because there are seats available.

... you are going home from work by subway and you know exactly where on the platform the doors will open and leave you right in front of the stairways at your home station.

...you cringe at hearing people pronounce Houston St. like the city in Texas

...you start thinking that a 500 square foot apartment is large.

...you see Harrison Ford walking down the street and nobody seemed to care to look at him.

...you know who Dr. Zizmor is.

...you have at least 50 menus in your apartment, two thirds of which you have neither ordered from nor even heard of.

...you wouldn't dream of going to Times Square on New Year's Eve.

...you freak out because a stranger says hello.

...someone bumps into you, and you check for your wallet.

...you pay no attention to the nice lady walking down the road having a perfectly normal conversation with herself.

...you understand that the plural form of you is youse.

...Nothing is north or south, it's uptown or downtown.

Stay? Go?

I went.

and it was good.

Should I stay or should I go?

Let's see here...

I could stay inside and eat my weight in peanuts

or

I could go for a walk around Inwood and get some fresh air.

.....to be continued....

Trip to Swarthmore, PA

It's been fun performing/working with the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company.

We've been traveling around New England performing at schools and doing workshops.

Recently we made a trip to Swarthmore (yes, SwaRthmore...I've been pronouncing it wrong), Pennsylvania.  We mingled with some students, did a Master class, a Lecture Demo, stood on a dark stage for several hours of tech-ing and then finally, performed our 2 1/2 hour show.  All over the course of 2 days.   The show was good for stamina and we had lots of fun.

Swarthmore is a Liberal Arts private college and was founded by Quakers.  It is now a secular school, but the buildings remind me of churches.  They are all so beautiful.

The Mess Hall at Swarthmore...mmm...college cafeteria food....

The school put us up in a nearby B&B, where we had the nicest accommodations and the best Host (she's the one on the end).  She made homemade cookies for us every night!

(these were taken in David's room, he had his own private bathroom)

This was the girl's bathroom we shared.  It came a whirlpool tub. ooh la la

This is the entry way and living room (all this

explanation is for mom...

I know she would love this place and would like to 

see as much detail as I can offer)

And then of course we had a delicious breakfast!  Our choices were

Homemade Granola, Eggs, Bacon, Pancakes, Fresh Oatmeal, Homemade 

Sausage, etc.   It was all so good!  The first day, I filled up on Breakfast and then

didn't have to eat 'til dinner!

And of course, the usual silliness backstage!

Mark found both these shirts in the lost and found.  Why would anyone get rid of such prized outfits?

Craft time

My cool Sister-in-law had a great idea to make fun headbands for New Year's.  Well, we went shopping for headbands, felt and feathers, but ran out of time to make them.  So I brought it home to work on.  It's not high quality, but it was fun.

The Grape-vine

The Green Feather

The Pink Feather

Now where to wear my new accessories....

Oooh fun!

This has been an exciting beginning of the year for me.

To start off, I came back to my job with gusto, as we prepare for 2 performances this weekend. Not that I don't like performing, it's just that after 2 weeks of barely moving, I've been a little sore from an intense week of rehearsing.  But, like I said, it's been nice to get back into the full swing of things.

However, I wasn't expecting to dislocate my toe during one our tech rehearsals. Of course I didn't know at the it was dislocated. Funny thing is, I wasn't dancing when it happened.  Oh no...I was running to a spot in the darkness and rammed my toe into one of the props.  Dancers are strange like that.  We function most gracefully when we are dancing, NOT in everyday life.    sheesh.

At first I thought I had just stubbed my toe....really really bad...I mean, it didn't look dislocated, it just hurt like crazy!  So, I taped the thing up and took the pain.  After about 3 hours of dancing on it, I couldn't take it anymore.  It hurt really bad.  And it was apparent that I had more than stubbed it, when I took off my toe tape it was all black and blue and swollen.  Not your normal response to stubbed toe.

(*I would like to digress here for a bit...

the day I "stubbed my toe" I was having sort of a dark, mentally cloudy day.  I was feeling pretty ungrateful and had nothing real positive running through my mind. But I want to say now, that that experience I've learned a few things...like being grateful)

Luckily, CDDC has workman's compensation, so I ran over to ER (was the quickest way for me to get x-rays to see if was broken or not).  I didn't have to wait more than 30 minutes, total, before I saw a doctor.  He assumed it was broken, but after x-rays, saw that nothing was broken, so assumed that it must have dislocated and then re-set on it's own.  What a blessing that was. It has healed so quickly. 

S0, after 3 days I've healed quickly, received reassuring phone calls, been treated by a doctor and still am able to perform this weekend.  (of course that was my biggest concern)

I was reminded that I have a lot to be grateful for: family, friends, an understanding employer, workman's comp, competent physicians, a body that heals well. 

Here are some pictures of my quick recovery: 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

The Re-entry

Well, it's that time again. That's right...time for The RE-ENTRY into the real world, the everyday life.  Here's to eating healthy again!  To waking up early, going to the gym, to working and paying bills.

I'm not complaining, really...well, maybe a little.  But I do miss having routine and regimen. Even though, I can hardly stick to it through out the year.

But until I can master my weaknesses, I have here a picture posted of how I generally feel after my lazy, over-eating 2 weeks.

Happy New Year!!!

Dude. Are you serious?

My Internet has been down for about a day and half. (using Internet at the local laundromat. The same laundromat with the awesome Novellas broadcasting on all 3 laundromat TVs...)

I realize now, just how much I go online in my day. I find myself, out of habit, going over to sit at the desk to check my email, only to sit there and frown at the dumb internet-less computer.

Well, on the brighter side, at least my hubby and I can converse with each other more.

Joseph B. Wirthlin, Oldest Apostle, Dies, Age 91

I have sat here trying to write something beautiful to dedicate to his memory, but his own sermons can tell you better and more eloquently, what a wonderful disciple he was.

My two favorite.

Come What May, and Love It, General Conference, October 2008

Concern for the One, General Conference, April 2008

Bad Week in the News

Since I've had the week off from work, I've taken advantage of reading the paper a little more thoroughly and brush up on the happenings the past week.

What I found was both shocking and absurd. Neither did it encourage or hearten my faith in mankind. (well not ALL of mankind, I'm not a misanthrope. But, definitely ashamed of some people)

Most of you, probably are more well read in the news than I, so this might be old news to you...

nevertheless, I can't help but comment on what I found.

I'll just post the link and you can read the article yourself.


Let's start with the shocking.


The NY Times Headline read:

Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death

Unbelievable, I know. But it happened. It is indeed a dark day, when human beings refuse to have any sympathy or compassion for another human being. It gives Black Friday a sad new meaning.


This next one is so ridiculous, it's almost funny.

Mothers Cut Personal Shopping to Buy Children's Gifts

Okay, well the Headline isn't as ridiculous, as is the article itself.

You're better off reading only the first 6-7 paragraphs. It turns into a rather unimportant analysis on retail and women consumers.

I'll quote some of the article, to give you an idea...

"Come Christmas, McKenna Hunt, a gregarious little girl from Safety Harbor, Fla., will receive the play kitchen and the Elmo doll she wants. But her mother, Kristen Hunt, will go without the designer jeans she covets this season."

Ms Hunt is quoted saying:

“I want her to be able to look back,” Ms. Hunt declared, “and say, ‘Even though they were tough times, my mom was still able to give me stuff.’ ”

-NYTimes, November 25, 2008. By Stephanie Rosenbloom


ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

STUFF??!!


You know what I remember from my childhood Christmases?
Well I won't lie...I do remember some awesome dress ups my sister gave/made me, and a rockin' barbie doll house my brother crafted himself.

But some of my BEST memories, are of spending time with my family. Whether it's making Divinity (a yummy type of candy...I will totally share the recipe if you want), doing the live Nativity with all the grandkids, or dressing up in purple and buying a purple tree, all for the purpose of freaking out my older brother.

I also distinctly remember my mom lecturing me, when I stupidly whined about the number of Christmas presents I received. I will NEVER forget that.

I hate to be a Donny Downer. I just found this week's news especially disheartening.

But all in all, I have hope for the holiday season that there will be those who will practice good will towards men. And that the message of hope and peace, of which Christmas is based, will continually be shared.

Dental update

Not sure how to title this entry.  I have a bunch of random things on my mind, right now. 

Let's start somewhere...

***

The following is a brief summary of my dental history.  I have already blogged about this topic before, so if you are tired of my rantings, feel free to ignore this blog.

***

Yesterday, I went in for my 4th oral surgery.  First one being my a biopsy for an enlarged cyst that turned out to be an OKC (Odontogenic Keratocyst).    The second one, was when they inserted the tube to drain the cyst.   Number three was to reinsert the tube, that came out.    And the fourth was an extraction on molar #31 (or 30?), which has had a root canal and was crowned.   The wanted to remove the tooth, because from the look of previous  X-rays for my OKC they found that my jaw surrounding#31 was darkened.  Dr. C told me we had to extract the tooth, remove the infection and send it out for a biopsy, to make sure it's not another OKC tissue forming.  

I have 3 more estimated surgeries to go for the removal of the tube and cyst, and then for 2 implants.  I'm famous at Columbia Dental School. :)

This last time wasn't so bad.  The doctors recommended that I be sedated for the surgery, since they were excavating the jaw as well as removing the tooth.  The last time I was sedated was for my Tube surgery, was HIGHLY emotional for me.  I felt bad for crying throughout the whole thing, but it was my first time ever having something like that done.  Plus the nurse who hooked me up to all the machines, inserted IV, and gave me the happy drug was very reassuring and very sweet.  I liked her. 

After the surgery was over and I was beginning to come to, I felt grateful for all the doctors, nurses, and assistants in the room.  I think I thanked them all individually and might've even said I love you, but that could've been my husband that I said it too.  (i hope)

Being sedated is weird.  There's nothing like trying to act normal and trying to be aware of your surroundings, but feeling helpless, foggy and sleepy (let's see what were the other dwarf's names...? Loopy, tipsy, surly, and....?)

I guess that's all I'm going to write about right now.  That's the biggest thing that's going on, I suppose.

I woke up at 5am this morning, thinking about a ton of stuff: praying, talks by General Authorities, my primary class, my family, and refried beans ( well, I have had very little to eat since yesterday, due to surgery.  I don't think I normally think about beans and cheese at 5 in the morning...at least i don't think so...)

Talking about all these surgeries makes me reflect on all of you who had helped me and prayed for me when I was undergoing my first surgery.  

I can't thank you enough times for you faith and prayers.  The Lord has truly blessed me with some good people in my life. 

It's raining, it's pouring...and I am really Boring!

It's been raining for about 3-4 days and I think it's starting to get to me. I mean, I'm really a sunshine girl. Hello...Arizona=Sun.
I haven't really been all that productive and I'm willing to blame it all on the dark clouds.
Why should I take responsibility? Huh? Who wants that??

Although, right now the rain isn't so annoying as it was when I was trying to run errands and do laundry today, because I'm at home safe and dry.

Actually, right now while I'm waiting for my dinner to be done, I'm jamming out to some Pink Martini and Gotan Project on Pandora.com. You should check it out.
This kind of music makes me feel like I'm in a James Bond movie:

"Anna walks stealthily to her pot of boiling macaroni,
grabs a shiny silver spoon and sexily scoops out an elbowed
piece of pasta. The pasta cools slightly on the spoon. She puts
the morsel in her mouth and then....she knows....the pasta, is ready."

Not going to lie, I'm a little embarrassed i just wrote that. But I'm keeping it.
Until I go back and edit it out....

So yeah.



LOOK! It's raining!

Picture Tag

This is me one cold wintry day in December, after I made a batch of Bob's Brownies! It's a family recipe. In fact, my entire family has the recipe memorized! They're actually microwaveable brownies, but they taste just as good baked in the oven. Yeah, this is it! Me stuffing my face! This happens a lot. ESPECIALLY during the winter months. Mmm...brownies. Uh...I have to go now....and...

bake....

brownies.



Here's the recipe!

1 stick of butter 1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla 3/4c flour
2 eggs 4 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 c chopped nuts (optional)

Mix eggs, sugar, & melted butter together.
When mixed well, add vanilla & cocoa & stir
until mixed in. Then add flour & stir until
smooth.

Put in microwaveable safe round pan and Nuke for
7-71/2 minutes or until done.

or

Bake in oven: Spread mix in greased 8x8x2" pan
& bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

I tag any one that wants to do this.

This is what you do:

1. Open your picture file

2. Go to the fourth folder

3.Open the fourth picture

4. Post the picture on your blog and write about it.

The BIG 8 Tag

8 Favorite TV shows

1. The Simpsons

2. The Office

3. Looney Tunes

4. Animaniacs

5. NOVA

6. National Geographic

7. Scientific American Frontiers

8. 30 Rock

8 Things I did yesterday

1. Woke up at 5:30am

2. Traveled in a car to New Jersey

3. Performed for a bunch of cute 5^th graders

4. Traveled back from Jersey

5. Ate dumplings (mmm…Ling Ling)

6. Took a nap

7. Re-Taped my poor foot (I've had a split for 2 months! grrr...)

8. Ate crappy junk food (Great way to finish off my day!)

8 Things to look forward to

1. Seeing my family for the holidays

2. Going to Flushing, Queens for T-Day

3. Being better about serving my neighbor

4. Hanging out with all my family/ancestors/progeny in heaven

5. Getting a new bed frame and mattress (we've had to sleep on our futon in our living room without pillows. Long story…it has to do with "jerk-face" from previous entry)

6. Getting my apartment beautifully organized and clean

7. Serving a mission

8. Becoming a better communicator, a better friend, a better---

let's just say become better.

8 Favorite Restaurants

1. Joe's of Shanghai (yummy dumplings)

2. Momo Sushi (yummy sushi and tofu)

3. Mi Amigos (I miss good Mexican food…doesn't exist out here)

4. Park View Diner (good food at a good price)

5. That place in Naples that we found down some alley somewhere (oh I'm drooling, just thinking about it)

6. Francesco's Pizzeria

7. Ned's Krazy Subs (good memories.good subs. Actually I have a lot of good memories with food. Grandma's pumpkin pie, Mom's stir fry, Dad and I going on daddy daughter date's to Subway, but I guess that's not the category we are in at the moment)

8. Mesa Frozen Yogurt (I mean, seriously. Is there anything better? No.)

8 Things on my Wish List

1. New Boots

2. I agree with Cami---a permanently clean house would be desirable!

3. Better eating habits

4. A 4-pack (a 6-pack on a girl can be too much...vain? Yes)

5. To have someone else do all my laundry

6. To have unlimited amounts of money to fly anywhere I want.

7. Regularly circulating Food Storage

8. To know 3 languages.

8 People I tag (don't feel obligated - just if you feel like it!)

1. Leslie

2. Andrea M

3. Cecily (you're first one! no pressure. There'll be plenty more)

4. Allison

5. Stacy

6. Valerie

7. Mom

8. Alicia

Ketchup...Catsup...

I'm baaack. Bet you were wondering where I went. Well, it's been kind of busy lately. Hopefully, I can give you a good synopsis of the last two weeks and highlight all the important/good moments. I'm terrible at summarizing. And I'm even WORSE at telling jokes. There's maybe 3 jokes total that I can execute well. Never ask me to repeat the joke about How to Catch a Polar Bear. You can ask my friend Shelley and she'll know what I'm talking about. In fact, she'll probably burst into laughter! Not because of the joke, but because of my awkward re-telling of the joke. It was atrocious.

See? Not so good at a synopsises (synopsis'? synops..nevermind)

Let's see. Last week I was away at Mahtha's Vineyard, Dahling!
The company I'm now dancing with took a retreat to Mass. to reh and work on a new piece. We were there during the off season of course, so we missed out on some cute shops. One in particular called Trader Jack's. They have pirate-y tshirts there. So you can imagine how sad I was when I discovered they were closed. tear...
Nonetheless, it was BEAUTIFUL. It was the idyllic little seaside New England town. Equiped with cute houses and adorable churches and little rock walls. We also had fun at our Halloween Party. Which the entire company takes very seriously. There were some really great costumes! I was Norma Desmond. From Sunset Boulevard. If you don't know who I'm talking about. GO SEE THE MOVIE. It's pretty great.

Trader Jack's. The best place for Pirate Booty.

A stone wall in Chilmark (near where we were staying)
and a lighthouse in Gay Head.

A boxer, the Scream and Norma.


What's next on the agenda:
Ah yes! For those of you who are familiar with my jaw cyst and my tube, I recently had to have my tube re-inserted. I don't really enjoy having that feeling that my lower left gums have been hacked and then sewn up and then have to take antibiotics, yet again. Double ick!
But, I'm not being fair. I really have great oral surgeons and they don't do a hack job. I really am impressed with them. I just got caught up in the spirit of complaining.

Oh but wait, I'm not done complaining...
Two days after my surgery, I woke up with 3 really large welts on my arm, leg and shoulder! We later found the culprit clinging on to the side of our box spring, probably too intoxicated from binging on my tasty blood! We still have Jerk-Face in a jar, sitting on our desk. (That's his name, Jerk-Face.) Every now and then I'll pick up the jar and shake my fist and curse him for his maliciousness. dumb bug. make me swell up and itch.
So in order to avoid the possibility of any other Jerk-Faces crawling out of our mattress and biting me, we got rid of our mattress and box spring and bagged up most of our clothing and sheets and pillows to wash or throw in the dryer (the little buggers don't take extreme heat or cold very well...mwahaha! Die! Die little blood suckers!) So for the time being we are sleeping on our Futon and using rolled up towels as pillows.



I used the quarter to give one an idea of how big my shoulder and leg swelled up.
I didn't get a good pic of my arm. But you can imagine it was big.

Today was a better day. I attended Stake Conference and was uplifted by all the wonderful topics and testimonies that were shared.

I realized after reading through my blog, that I complained way too much. I really have a lot to be grateful for. Good doctors, modern medicine, a husband who loves me and lives the gospel well, a family who loves me, cute nieces who love me, beautiful fall colors, dancing opportunities, the Prophet, and for YOU! Gosh you're swell.

I just felt like I had to redeem myself for all my whining.

It's quite the reading assignment!
Good luck.

Trying on a new outfit!

Figured out how to make my blog look nice.  What do you think?  Maybe I'll try another one!