update and pics

Last weekend didn't go quite as I had planned.  Instead of hibernating and eating cake, I ended up spending the weekend in Wyoming, playing nurse to an injured friend.  No worries, though, it wasn't quite as dreary as it sounds (despite the lack of cake).  I actually had a great time, as always seems to happen when I'm up there.  It gets harder and harder to leave every time. I swear one of these days I'm going to go for a weekend and just not come back!

Since I'm doing updates, I should also mention that there's only three and a half weeks left until my trip!  Woot woot!  I decided to cut my time in Dublin and London a little bit short and spend some additional time in Paris.  My dad is on sabbatical this semester and will be in Europe at the same time, so we're going to meet up in Paris to finish out both of our trips.  We'll be staying in the same condo we were in last summer.  So yeah, 5 days in Dublin, 5 in London and another 5 in Paris.  Speaking of Paris, I never did post any pics from last summer's trip.  I didn't actually take any pictures on the trip, but I stole these from my brother:

The Moulin Rouge.  Sadly, Ewan McGregor was nowhere to be found.

From the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Did I mention that I hiked up many, many stairs to get to the top?

Stained glass at Sainte Chapelle

This place was pretty amazing.

Pictures obviously don't do it justice.  It must be experienced in person.

I love gargoyles and other grotesque carvings.  Good times!

The atmosphere in old churches . . . amazing!

Mass at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame

More Notre Dame

The Steps from Midnight in Paris.

People watching is always half the fun!

From our boat trip on the Seine.

Loved all the little scenes like this.

Chopin's grave

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

The area dedicated to WWII was unbelievable.

The monument for Auschwitz.

Year in Review

It's that time of year again.  Part of me says thank goodness this year is over and part of me is sad to see it go.  Then there's the biggest part of me that really just doesn't care either way.  That is definitely the dominant part.  Nevertheless, as I have been horrible at blogging lately, this is the perfect opportunity to compose a blog post that will hopefully entertain, enlighten and perhaps cause a few tears to be shed.  Haha, not really, but that was quite dramatic!  And now I shall commence with the discussing of me and my year, as that is what is truly important tonight.  :) 

Highlights of 2012

• Moving closer to my family.
• Every single moment in Paris, even the ones I didn't absolutely love because hello, it was Paris! (Except for the one lowlight, see below.)  I can't pass this one by without mentioning a few specifics:
• Sharing the experience with my family.
• Seeing works of art that brought tears to my eyes and are some of the clearest examples of the influence of the Divine that I have ever seen.  It never ceases to amaze me how the arts can be such a spiritual experience.  
• Pastries!  Glorious, glorious pastries!
• Weekends spent in Wyoming.  
• The fact that the moments where I felt like all was right in the world far outnumbered the moments where I felt like everything was wrong.
• My daily email and text conversations with Traci, who saved my sanity many, many times.
• My apartment and the solitude, serenity and pants-free environment that it offers.
• Antagonizing people on Facebook for sport during the election season.  I really felt like it was the only way to make those few months before the election bearable.  If any of those people are now reading this, I apologize if you were really and truly offended.
• Temporarily living with BFF Amber after I moved back to Utah. 
• Discovering Homeland, Misfits, Iwan Rheon, Harlan Coben and Lee Child. 
• Taking my client that had cancer for a CT scan a few weeks ago and finding out that there is no sign whatsoever of cancer!

Lowlights of 2012

• The whole Wyoming exodus.  Leaving my friends and clients was heartbreaking and many tears were shed.  Then there was the whole having to give my dog back to the shelter drama.  I still can't speak of it. 
• Moving three times in one year.  I don't want to move again any time soon.  As I wrote that I felt like I was jinxing it and condemning myself to move again in 2013.  Nooooooo!!!!!!
• Having my car stolen.  I still can't quite believe it actually happened.
• The slight (meaning major) nervous breakdown I had early in October.  It was the perfect storm of events and circumstances that caused me to question every single thing in my life; not eat, sleep or bathe for a while; and watch an excessive number of episodes of Roseanne.  Very glad that it's over and that there were people around that I could lean on for support.  On the other hand, it was this event that led me to make my plans for Dublin and London because I needed something to look forward to, so I can't complain too much!
• Being in Paris and having massive blood blisters on the bottoms of my feet that caused excruciating pain with every step I took.  I had to pad and tape my feet every day, but then it would all just come off with all the walking around.  :(  
• My client being diagnosed with cancer and the subsequent treatment.  Taking her to radiation every single day for weeks on end was definitely one of the lowest of the low moments of the year.  And I wasn't even the one with cancer! 

I know I'm forgetting many things but these are the things that immediately came to mind.  There were so many other awesome events, people and moments throughout the year and also several other really crappy moments, but all in all, I consider 2012 to be a success.  I have learned much and experienced much and I am ending the year feeling more content and secure with myself and my life than ever before.  Thanks for reading and being part of my journey!

stuff

I'm going camping in Wyoming this weekend and I just found out it's going to be all couples . . . and me.  I'm sure it will be tons of fun and not depressing and lonely at all!!!

Here are some random pics from my phone because I can't come up with anything else to blog about:

A friend of mine taught me how to make homemade kimchi.  It has these disgusting looking baby shrimp in it.  Delicioso!

I bought this awesome cat plate at DI for 75 cents.  Money well spent!!!

 I did not buy this Jesus statue.  Look into his eyes!!

 The difference between driving around in Wyoming . . .

  . . . and Utah.

 

Homemade sushi from the friend who made the kimchi.  I admit the thought of homemade sushi was a little frightening, but it was actually really good.  

 

This is how much snow was on the ground when I left Wyoming in March.  I didn't miss it then, but I do miss it now.  It's been so stinkin' hot lately!

 

 The friends I'm living with for the moment have two dogs (the brown one and the black one whose face you can see), and a couple weeks ago they were dog-sitting their aunt's dogs.  For unknown reasons they all liked to congregate on my bed.  While I was in it.  It actually totally made my day.

The cousin of my client who has cancer sent me flowers.  How gorgeous are they!  And how sweet is she!  It's always nice to know you're appreciated. 

an update

Job's good. It's really cold. I'm super psyched for Christmas. Ugh. Alright, I guess I can do better than that. Hmmm . . . let's see . . .

• I'm liking being the boss (well, one of four bosses) at Christmas. I've been getting lots of treats. Of course it also means I have lots of staff to give something to. I decided to do cake balls because I pretty much like anything that has balls in the name. Instead of making them with frosting I used cream cheese. They are so much better this way.
• Netflix is taking up way too much of my time. I started watching The Vampire Diaries and I can't get enough of it. Stefan needs to go, though. I'm all about Damon. Stefan is far too whiney and depressing. He's like Edward Cullen without the glitter.
• I got a puppy over the summer and named her Veronica Mars. She lasted two days and then I gave her away. I couldn't handle the getting up every two hours during the night and the constant chewing of my furniture. It's probably a good thing I don't have children.
• Now I have Walker. He's a treeing walker coonhound. I got him from the local shelter where he had been for a year. He's super cute, but also super pesky sometimes. Today I came home from work to find my 25 pound bag of potatoes strewn all over the living room. He also really likes to chew on plastic food storage containers.
• Someone is doing the 12 Days of Christmas for me. There are few things in life that are better than coming home to a present every day. Yay for presents!!!
• I've been kinda seeing this guy, but I really don't like him very much. I don't not like him, but I don't like him, if you know what I mean. He always wants to talk on the phone. I'm not in junior high anymore-I don't need to talk on the phone for hours. I keep coming up with reasons not to talk to him or go out with him again and I need to just suck it up and tell him I'm not interested. It's hard to blow people off in a small town. The chances of seeing them around town are very high.
  
• I got a little obsessive about Christmas this year and got out my decorations the first week in November.
• I've been doing a weekly game night with some friends. Apples to Apples is a great way to get to know people. People have learned that I rarely go with the obvious answer. I'm all about creativity and humor. If you don't amuse me you won't win.
• It's really cold up here. It was like 2 degrees mid-day today. I always know it's really cold when I take the dog out and my nose hairs freeze and tickle me when I breathe. Since it's been so cold we haven't had much snow and now what snow we do have looks all weird like fish scales.
  
• One of my clients is constantly amazed to see me. I go say hi to her every day and every day she looks at me and says "Kim?!?" like she can't believe it's really me. Then she runs/toddles over and gives me a big hug. Then when I see her later in the day at her house, she is again amazed to see me. It's great.
  
• I'm going to attempt to keep track of the books I read next year again. I tried this year (see sidebar), but when I updated it with a bunch of new titles I forgot to save it. This of course irritated me and I gave up on it. I'll try again next year. Not that anyone ever looks at the list anyway-it's much more for my own information.

Alrighty, that's it for now. I would say I'll try to be more regular with my posting, but I'm guessing it probably won't happen. I will try to update after Christmas though. The nieces and nephew are coming, so hopefully I'll have some cuteness to share.

Yellow

An email I just received about a conversation between my nieces and sister in-law:

My conversation with the girls today...

Ashley: When are we going to see Kimmy again? I want to go to Wyoming.

Sariah: Kimmy lives in the yellow stuff.

Me: What? What is the yellow stuff?

S: You'll just see when you get there.

M: Ok, but what are you talking about?

S: It's just the yellow stuff. And she has a fountain that has really stinky water. And there are lots of trees and mountains. And Kimmy lives outside. She doesn't have a house.

M: Kimmy does not live outside. Do you mean Yellowstone?

S: Yeah. Yellowstone.

(She continued to refer to it as yellow stuff for the rest of the car ride.)

morning visitor

Woke up to this little one in the backyard . . .

Pardon the cell phone camera quality! And that's wood for the fire pit, not a pile of crap. :)

Emergency situation!

It's official-Wyoming has turned me. This will come as a shock to those of you who know me, but I spent the whole day yesterday fishing and . . . wait for it . . . I liked it. I am not the kind of person who likes dirt and bugs. In fact, it's hard for me to fathom that there are people who do; so when a friend of mind invited me to go fishing yesterday, my natural instinct was to say not just no, but f*ck no. Fortunately, my roommate was being a bump on a log and wouldn't get out of bed, so I decided to go fishing. Of course I only planned to stay for an hour or so-that way my nature allergy wouldn't cause too many problems. I also thought my friend and I were going to just sit around the campfire while her husband and kids fished. This was not the case, however. She made me go out on the water with her. Keep in mind that this is a glacial lake and thus the water is only slightly above freezing. At first I just sat there, but then there must have been a breach in the space time continuum or something, because I found myself doing crazy and bizarre things like putting a worm on the hook and grabbing little fishies to pull the hooks out of their mouths. I not only had dirt on me but also worm innards and fish slime. It gives me the shivers just to think about it now. We stayed out on the lake for a few hours, then went back to shore and I planned on leaving. Somehow I ended up going out again for another few hours. What has happened to me? With the recent plethora of natural disasters, I'm wondering if maybe there was an earthquake in the area I was not aware of and it shook things up in my brain. That's the only possible explanation. This is not normal behavior for me. Quick, somebody give me a UA-someone must have slipped me some drugs!!!



P.S. It's possible that I'm going camping and fishing again next weekend. What has happened to me?????

Decisions, decisions

I'm supposed to be applying for a management position in the company I work for. It would be a great opportunity, but the past couple of months I haven't been able to shake the feeling that maybe it isn't what I should be doing. Today I put in my official letter of interest and now I have this overwhelming, horrible feeling that I'm making a huge mistake. So . . . do I follow my gut or not? I keep saying that whether or not I get this job will decide for me whether or not I stay in Wyoming, so I guess if I don't even apply for the job, that kind of makes that decision for me. Although really, it doesn't have to. Sigh. I don't know what I'm doing!!! Obviously not much has changed since my last post! I'm going to discuss it with the fam this weekend and see what they think, but I think I've already made up my mind. Anyone else want to chime in with their thoughts?

Long time no see!

So I've been home sick all week and I thought that in between trips to the bathroom (TMI, I know!), I'd update my blog with what's been going on the last two or so months since I last posted. And just so you know, if this post does not illicit a sufficient number of comments, I'm never posting again!!! (Possibly kidding, but not sure at this moment, as I'm kind of finding myself over the whole blogging thing!)

• I moved into a new apartment. Same area, just slightly further out of town. This is my backyard:
• Speaking of the backyard, I came home the other day to find a herd of buffalo in the backyard:
• To go in my new place, I got a new couch:
• My new roommate has this cutie:
• Her name is Vixen and she likes to snug in bed with me:
• Down the road is the following sign and every time I see it, I swear it says Flying Whores:
• Also down the road is this cute goat:
• The weather here has been kinda crappy:
• In fact, it actually snowed the other day:
• I’ve been spending a lot of my time lately doing quite a few things I never thought I would ever do. You see, my roommate’s family has a farm and I love it there. Love everything about it. It’s possible that I’m turning into a farmer. This is the view from their porch:
• One of the things I definitely never thought I would be doing is branding a cow. No, not just watching the other people brand cows, I actually BRANDED A COW!!! I know, it’s like I’m a completely different person! Here’s a cow in the trapping mechanism. It’s not the one I branded, but it’s possibly related, and it's the only picture I took, so here you go:
• Speaking of cows, I had my first farm heartbreak with the little darling below. She wasn’t doing well and I did what I could to help, and I thought she was making a comeback and would be o.k., but then she died.
• And since we’re on the subject of cattle, let’s talk bulls. And their penises. I got to witness bull semen collecting! See that pink thing sticking down in the first pic? Yeah. What you can’t see in the second picture is that while the vet is down there with his little cup, his helper is sticking what looks like a black missile in the bull’s rear end. I felt like I was watching a prison rape scene or something.
• Remember a while ago when I blogged about having seen the eggs coming out of the chickens and I couldn’t eat eggs for weeks? Well, here are the culprits:
• Also on the farm are sheep and goats:
• This little cutie is Bonnie. She and her sister, Emma, are my favorites:
• And this little rascal here just had his um . . . (how do I say this delicately?) . . . well, he had his little goatie balls banded. Instead of just cutting them off, they put rubber band thingies on them and then they just fall off. I can only hope that some day soon I will be walking along and discover a couple of goat balls lying on the grass. So anyway, sadly, his humping days are no more.
• This is my partner in crime. Her name is Lacey and she’s the biggest sweetheart ever. I love her to pieces and force her to ride along with me on the back of the four wheeler. Some day I'm going to dognap her and never give her back.
• There are also geese on the farm. See that white one? His name is Frederick, but it should have been Little F*cker. No really, he comes at you and is like an attack dog! At one point I had to flee to my car with him sitting outside, flapping his wings at me, waiting to peck me to death. If ever I have a chance to run him over or accidentally stab him with a pitchfork, I will.
• I’ve been doing a little bit of traveling for work lately. I made a road trip out to Nebraska to pick up a new client and sadly, this is the only photo I took. Nebraska is gorgeous, by the way. The cow feedlot we passed along the way, however, made me want to vomit.
• I also went with my clients to Special Olympics in Laramie. Since everything involved clients, I obviously couldn’t take any pictures, but I had a great time. Remember that commercial from years ago that may actually have been for Special Olympics, wherein they’re running a race and one of the competitors fall and the rest of them stop, turn around and go back to help that person finish the race? Well, imagine three days of that. I was slightly emotional.
• So I think that’s about it for now. Sorry this was such a long post. As a reward for finishing, here’s another shot of the bull peen: