Day Thirty

Wah hoo! I actually made it. Today is the final day of the 30-day blogging challenge. It's a good feeling. I'll miss blogging every day, but I won't miss the pressure of blogging every day.

So, here's a picture that Mr. Perfect just took of me. It's not posed, and I just came in from exercising, so you get me in all my sweating glory.

Three good things that have happened to me:

1. Mr. Perfect
2. Serving a mission to Wisconsin
3. Having the opportunity to travel a lot (I love to travel)

Day Twenty-nine

I love photography. I've loved it since I was a little kid and my dad would set up the old movie camera with the blinding lights for Christmas morning. I loved "helping" him take pictures with the old Polaroid. He still has it, but can't find film for it, which is too bad. It takes great pictures.

In 9th grade, I took a photography class were we worked only in black and white, but we rolled our own film, developed it, and developed the prints. It's one of my favorite classes I've ever taken.

As a child, my dream was to become a freelance photojournalist for the National Geographic Society. Seriously. I even knew what freelance meant.

(A word of explanation for this photo: It's from a production of The Foreigner and in no way supports or promotes the KKK or its ideals.)

I love my Nikon. I love the pictures it takes. I love the 200mm telephoto lens I was crazy enough to buy for it. The filters are fun to play with.

But mostly, I love framing and taking pictures and having them turn out the way I imagined. It doesn't always happen. A friend of mine who does side work as a professional photograph said that you have to be willing to take 50 bad to okay shots to get the one you really love. Digital makes that so much easier. Plus you can look at your picture right there and see if it's going to be the way you want it. Sort of. It doesn't always look the same printed or on a screen as in the little viewer on the back of the camera.

Anyway, I love photography.

Day Twenty-eight

My favorite movie. Now I really have to think. I enjoy a lot of different movies for a lot of different reasons. I'm not always in the mood to watch a movie I love, but that doesn't mean I won't want to watch it later.

I do have a favorite mini-series: Little Dorrit. The new one with Matthew Macfadyen.  It's wonderful, but you need a good nine hours to devote to it.

Day Twenty-seven

Me last year:

Me today (literally, I just took this about two minutes ago):

How have I changed in the last year? I'm not sure. I've gained a little weight (grrrrr!!!) and my hair has more grey (also I think the humidity in Las Vegas helped it look better). I still teach piano and work as a technical writer. I'm still married to Mr. Perfect and love him desperately.

Last fall we took the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course through our Stake, and now our only debt is mortgage payments for the house and the condo I had before we got married. It feels really good.

I've learned that I don't handle what to me seems irrational as well as I thought I would. Especially if it affects people I love. It can be very hard to walk away from it and not let it affect you negatively. I need to work on that. I really like this quote from Mr. Perfect: "The only thing I can't tolerate is intolerance."

Day Twenty-six

This picture was taken on the dirt road to the access of Wolf and Horse Canyons last April. We like to try and get down to the Escalante area every year to do some hiking.

Day Twenty-five

I don't carry a purse. No, really. I don't carry a purse. I have a small, evening purse I used to use on dates, but now that I'm married, I don't have to take keys, my own credit card, or money for a phone call.

Here is what I take with me to work:

Sorry about the blinding silver strip. In my messenger bag, I carry:

• Work laptop
• Planner
• Whatever books I'm readying
• iPod
• Phone
• Work badge
• Wallet
• Small camera
• Miscellaneous papers

It gets pretty heavy at times.

Mr. Perfect calls my wallet my purse, because it's what I take with me when not going to work. It has

• Debit card
• Library card
• Costco card
• Various other discount and store cards (not credit cards)
• Money (though not much)
• Stamps
• Driver's license
• Fishing license
• Insurance cards
• Temple recommend

Funny, it has more stuff than my messenger bag...

P.S. Once again at a loss as to what a male blogger would write about for this day. Even though it seems like most bloggers are women, not all of them are women. Maybe only women do these kinds of challenges. Though I have several nephews who do this sort of thing on facebook...just saying.

Day Twenty-four

A picture of something that means a lot to me:

Ask me sometime.

Day Twenty-three

15 random facts about me:

(What would they be other than random?)

1. I love flowers, especially roses, from someone's garden more than flowers from the florist.
   
2. I've never been to New England, but I've been to old England.
   
3. My favorite food is green beans.
   
4. My favorite holiday is Christmas.
   
5. My least favorite holiday is Halloween.
   
6. I love to fly.
   
7. My eyes have no brown in them, even though most people think that they are brown.
   
8. I look 10-15 years younger than I really am, depending on who you ask.
   
9. I'm 5 months older than my husband (see, I told you).
   
10. I find #8 irritating sometimes, though most people I know think I should be happy with it.
    
11. My favorite meal is Chicken Cordon Bleu, rice, asparagus, and fresh-baked rolls.
    
12. I'd rather eat food I haven't made.
    
13. I'm not that great of a housekeeper, and I wish I were better at it.
    
14. I love my family very much.
    
15. I love God even more.

Day Twenty-two

A letter to someone who has recently hurt me. No one has recently hurt me. I'm a very lucky person. Most of the people I know like me; and the ones who don't like me, leave me alone.

Maybe I'm just too easy going. Maybe I don't take things personally enough. Some of the kid's actions used to hurt me, but it's been a while since that happened. I know that they hurt Mr. Perfect frequently. Children can be that way. I know that their mom tries her best to hurt him, but her actions actually hurt the kids more than they hurt him. Silly how we think it won't be that way.

So, I don't have a letter to write. I don't have a hurt that burns and needs to be expressed.

As I said before, I'm a very lucky person.

Day Twenty-one

The painting is done in the kitchen! YAY!!!!!

This makes me very happy.

Day Twenty

The meaning behind my blog name? Well, I've always been a bit random: the way I think, the way I act, the way I live. A friend once called me the Queen of Non Sequiturs. It's true. My thoughts rarely flow in a straight line.

Look, squirrel!

When flying a kite, you need at least two things: a kite and string. (Some kites need a tail, but not all styles.) Without string, your kite is not grounded and will not stay on course. It will be carried by any and all winds, and eventually crash to the ground. In one of those strange but true physics paradoxes, without string to keep it grounded, it cannot stay airborne. My kite strings are the people in my life who keep me grounded while allowing me to fly.

Day Nineteen

This picture is from last summer's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Mr. Perfect doesn't like how his eyes are squinting, but it's one of the few pictures of me that I actually don't mind.

(Yes, I am wearing make up. We were doing a play.)

Day Eighteen

What do I crave a lot? That's easy.

And no, it's not Snoopy.

Day seventeen

This might actually be everyone...and a few friends for extra fun.

Day Sixteen

At dinner last night, my sister-in-law mentioned that she believes most LDS woman have a crush on President Uchdorf. I can see that. He's tall, good-looking, has a wonderful German accent (who know how many languages he speaks?), flies planes, and probably looked great in his uniform as a commercial airline pilot. And there's no denying that he is a powerful speaker.

However, my favorite living general authority speaker is President Eyring, although I must admit that he doesn't have the same, umm, physical draw as President Uchdorf. (In case you're wondering, my all-time favorite was Neal A. Maxwell.)

Now, I'm sure that what the creators of this challenge were looking for was someone more commercially celebrated. So in that case, I guess I have to say that it's Nathan Fillion. He's just shiny, cap'n.

And my absolute, totally gone-on crush? Why, Mr. Perfect, of course.

Day Fifteen

I don't know that there's a single item I never leave the house without bringing with me. If Mr. Perfect is driving, I don't need my wallet or keys. I'm really bad at remembering my phone. I suppose, if I have to pick something, it would be clothes. I never leave the house naked.

Here's a picture of my most recent clothing purchase:

I hope using the word naked in a post doesn't offend anyone.

Day Fourteen

We don't watch a lot of regular T.V. We own plenty of DVDs and have streaming Netflix, so who needs a lot of poorly written, sex in your face shows invading your house and your senses?

Also, it seems that whenever I really like a show, it ends up getting canceled after one or two seasons, so it's better to not get into a series until it has been around a couple of years.

Examples:

Firefly *sigh*

Freaks and Geeks

Pushing Daisies *huge sigh*

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

All very high quality shows, and only Pushing Daisies made it past year one, but only just. So right now we actually enjoy The Dick Van Dyke Show in reruns on Netflix, revisit a kinder, gentler past with DVDs of Firefly and Pushing Daisies, and catch the occasional episode of Castle on Monday nights. But only occasionally. I mean really, who has time for T.V.?

Day Thirteen

Favorite musician? Seriously? I don't have a favorite. I have several I LOVE (their music, not them personally). Asking me for my favorite musician is like asking which is your favorite molecule of air to breathe.

So here is a list of preferred musicians by genre (which are listed in no specific order):

Classical:

Hilary Hahn

The King'Singers

Utah Symphony

Academy of Saint Martin's-in-the-Field

Country:

Brad Paisley (okay, he's my favorite Country artist)

Suzy Bogguss

Pop:

Noah and the Whale

The Decemberists

Five for Fighting

A Fine Frenzy

The Fratellis

Jazz:

Stacey Kent

Glen Miller Band

Louis Armstrong

Oscar Peterson

Ella Fitzgerald

Jamie Cullum

Straight No Chaser

Broadway shows:

Susan Egan

Kristen Chenowith

A couple additional questions:
Who's on your playlist?
Who's not on your playlist, and why?

Day Twelve

The city where I live:

A couple of things about this picture:

1. It doesn't do Salt Lake City justice. It was an ugly day.
2. This was taken several years ago (2005, I believe) while the LDS Conference Center was still under construction (see the crane), so the city skyline looks better now.

Day Eleven

  Without makeup:                     With makeup:

Makeup? What's that? Okay, confession time: I use makeup very rarely off the stage. I wore some for my first date with Mr. Perfect. I wore it the day we got married (you know, pictures were involved). I will wear it when we're having professional pictures taken. Other than that? Not so much.

My makeup bag contains the basics: base, blush, eye shadow, eye liner, lip liner, various shades of lip stick, loose powder, mascara, brushes and sponges, Q-tips, hair elastics.

All this thinking about makeup is making my head ache. Mr. Perfect says that I don't look different with or without makeup. We went hiking on our second date, and I didn't wear any makeup (please, we were in the mountains sweating; yeah, I wanted him to see me with base running down my face -- NOT!). He said he was impressed that I would go without makeup and then said that I looked really good without it, so he wasn't surprised I didn't use it much. Who could resist such a man? Really?

(After thought: I found this post a little disturbing. I mean, women aren't the only ones who blog. So what are men using for the subject of day eleven?)