Priya the Prius

After a long time of not very seriously thinking about buying a new car while driving my Corolla with a bad shift fork (or something that caused it to pop out of 4th gear) for over a year (yep - irresponsible car owner) I made the plunge and bought a new car. And here she is...Priya the Prius.

50 mpg makes a huge difference in my commute as does cruise control and look at the cargo space - quite impressive for a little car. Using a power button instead of putting a key in the ignition throws me off a bit sometimes but it is also pretty cool. Power windows, door locks, CD player, 2 power adapters, auxiliary port for your iPhone to play directly through the stereo system, etc. - this is pretty normal for most of the world but is an amazing upgrade for me. I made the purchase last Saturday and have been loving it!

morning commute

For the first time in weeks I woke up early, had plenty of time to get ready and leisurely leave the house. I was ready for my 12 hour 'day before thanksgiving' work day. I had a lot to do today as a result of leaving early yesterday to beat the horrendous snow storm - that really let's be honest didn't really ever materialize although it did snow some.

And...the garage door wouldn't open. I tried it 4 times because I really didn't believe it didn't want to just open and let me out. I went around in front to see it a huge snow mound was blocking it - nope. I don't know what was wrong - maybe ice in the mechanics? But it wouldn't raise more than an inch. So I went in and asked Brig to be my knight in shining armor (what would have I done if he wasn't there? probably figured it out eventually but it would have taken a lot longer). He banged on it, tugged on it, and pulled on it - had me try the button again and low and behold it worked! I was on my way with only a slight delay.

Then...not even out of Salt Lake I attempted to clean off my windshield from the grime being kicked up by other cars when I realized I had no wiper fluid. No worries I thought - I can make it work even with low visibility. I soon realized that low visibility combined with sun was not going to work and barely made it off an exit to find another way to clean off the windshield. I had a bottle of water in the seat that would come to the rescue - oh wait I actually don't. I looked around at my options...tea...lemon water...hand wipes. I went with the hand wipes and cleaned a big enough spot to look out. Jiffy Lube tops off your fluids for free and there was one right at my exit to work. Perfect.

So...I get to Jiffy Lube where they took one look at my car and said "Did you want a car wash, miss?". I assured them that all I needed was to have the fluids topped off and windows washed and that was late to work already. Being the diligent Jiffy Lube employees that they were they also informed me that my battery was pretty much dead and offered to replace it. After a short discussion informing me about the dangers of dead batteries and alternators going out I decided to just get it changed. A dead battery is the last thing you want in the winter, right? The whole process went quickly since I was the only customer. Here's how the conversation went as I checked out.

Jiffy Lube Guy: Is this Salt Lake address still current?
Me: Yes.
Jiffy Lube Guy: Really?
Me: Yep.
(and I could see his mind turning over the information that I lived in Salt Lake - worked in Springville - and commuted an hour each way - and thinking that I was nuts and then realizing that his comment was not great customer service quickly tried to cover it up)
Jiffy Lube Guy: Right - okay so today we...blah, blah, blah...thank you so much for coming in today.

Then...I arrived at work only an hour past schedule to realize that I didn't have my keys. My colleague let me into the building but I might need to learn how to pick a lock to get into my files.

How thankful am I that I have a five day weekend starting tomorrow? Very. Hopefully the rest of the day will fly by smoothly.

Zumba

I was late leaving work so instead of attending my normal weight lift class I went to the next class which is Zumba. I have always wanted to try Zumba so I was kind of excited. I got quite the workout but I have to say it wasn't quite what I wanted it to be. In order to be passable at Zumba you need to have a high skill level with latin dancing which I am sorely lacking. So basically I just jumped around for an hour trying to stay in the corner and out of the eye of the instructor. Maybe I will get better with practice or maybe I will just stick to weights and yoga which move much slower and therefore require less coordination.

ode to kate

My sister Kate is pretty much amazing! She came over and together (to be honest mostly her) we unloaded all of my stuff from the Relo Cube in just over an hour. Then she helped me put my bed together so I would have somewhere to sleep. I shudder to think how long it would have taken me to do it by myself.

day 5

We made it to the Weber! So happy to be out of the car!

day 4

Nauvoo to Cheyenne - turns out it is only 12 1/2 hours. We made it in time to see a bit of historic downtown, have a great dinner at Hacienda Gaudelahara, see the new Harry Potter movie, and get a good night's rest.

day 3

Nauvoo - wonderful weather - not too hot - a bit of rain in the evening but it cleared up. We had a wonderful session at the temple, took a wagon ride and a carriage ride, and toured the historic homes. We are both exhausted so we are going to bed since we are getting up at 5 am tomorrow to make it all the way to Cheyenne.

day 2

Across Indiana and Illinois to Nauvoo. Geoff is a very entertaining driving partner. We have decided that I am much better at navigating and organizing and he is much better at driving (he makes up all the time that I lose while driving the speed limit and the only wrong turn we have taken so far has been my fault). We are greatly enjoying the use of the Tippet's GPS. I still have a head cold and a sore throat which is making life a bit less enjoyable.

Here is our favorite sign from today:
AVOID HELL. REPENT. TRUST JESUS.

Very sage advice and somehow more forceful in 2 foot letters.

We arrived at Nauvoo and checked into the Woodruff House. Geoff's favorite part is the really nice front door. He isn't sure about the rest of Nauvoo. My favorite part is that the bathroom is actually larger than the bedroom - where do you find that in a hotel. We went the visitor's center where Geoff promptly ran into a couple he knew from his mission who gave the low down of how utterly unprepared we were to visit Nauvoo as we had not yet reserved tickets for anything or reserved a time for a temple session. We now have a temple session reservation and found out that we don't actually need tickets for the pageant which was the main thing we wanted to do anyhow. We attended a performance of High Hopes and River Boats - a love story performed by missionaries. In the end the right guy got the girl (if it was done rather abruptly and made no sense) - caveat Geoff disagrees and thinks the other guy should have gotten the girl. We then went to find some dinner because Geoff needed something more hearty than yet another sandwich and lo and behold some random guy walked up to Geoff and said - "aren't you from the USU 18th ward?". That's right folks Geoff is pretty much famous. We were able to help this guy (Philip) and his new wife with directions on how to get out of Nauvoo and on to Cincinnati (thanks again to the Tippet's handy dandy GPS). We stepped back to the 1950's to a little cafe for a very strange dinner of fried chicken/catfish, potatoes, and vegetables. Now to get a good night's rest before we explore the rest of Nauvoo tomorrow.

day 1

Virginia - Washington, DC - Maryland - Pennsylvania - West Virginia - Ohio - Indiana.

7 states in one day. Indiana and Washington, DC made it by a hair.

Now for bed and seven hours to Nauvoo tomorrow.

reading and walking is not completely a lost art

This morning on my commute I passed a girl engrossed in a book as she walked down the sidewalk. It was gratifying to see someone else walk down the street reading a book because so many people (mostly complete strangers) make fun of me for doing it. I feel as long as I don't run into anyone or trip and land on my face it is a great use of time.