Olympus High School Class of 2000 Alumni Website

High winds here in the valley have kicked up a ton of dust and turned our air quality to crap. Imagine looking out of your window and seeing nothing but a thick fog. Now imagine walking out your front door to discover that the “fog” is actually hot air whirling around with dirt in it. Yum.

I was feeling crabby on the way to the grocery store today, so I made a mental list of all the things I didn’t like about Utah, dust storms included. Then I made a list of all the things I loved about Ohio. Of course, by the time I got to the store, I had started to remember all of the things I didn’t like about Ohio and how much better it was here in Utah. It went something like this:

UTAH vs OHIO

Weather – Utah has dust storms and inversion, but I’ll take those over the ice storms, pounding rain, and humid summers of Ohio. Plus, the snow here is just so fluffy and cheerful! It’s like we’re living on the set of a holiday movie.

Social life – If you want to go out to do something here in Utah, you’re going to have to drive for a while and you’ll probably be eating something. Ohio wins with lots of activities within walkable distance and a good atmosphere for going to bars without spending $90 in two hours. Plus, with Margi’s upcoming move to Cleveland, Kyle and I officially have more friends living in Ohio than in any other state in the country.

Community – It’s a little plastic around here, but Utah definitely wins with lots of family friendly events and people who really enjoy helping out their neighbors. Plus, the area where we used to live had really, really high statistics for occurrences of sexual assault, which sort of puts a damper on the community spirit.

Cuisine – It’s a draw between the two, although Utah has the upper hand on fresh food and good Mexican. However, I can’t forget the deep fried pickles and ridiculous stacked burgers of the midwest.

Traffic – I’d say it was a draw, but Kyle enjoys the traffic in Ohio more. He’d rather deal with crazy drivers doing 90MPH than the fact that everyone in Salt Lake City takes the same four roads to get to and from work.

Jobs – It’s a lot easier to find work in Utah, which means you’re more likely to get a job you’re happy with and stay there. Plus, tons of people are now on a 4-day work week here, so Utah wins twice.

Weekend trips – Ohio wins, even though Utah is just a little bit away from both Yellowstone National Park and Las Vegas. The problems aren’t the destination, they’re the drives. In Ohio when you drive somewhere for the weekend, you pass interesting things, little towns, and general stuff to look at. In Utah, when you drive somewhere for the weekend, you pass salt and dirt until you get there. There’s nothing else. Maybe cows. But mostly dirt.

Proximity to Disney parks (what? it’s important to us!) – It’s a tie. Disneyland is a day trip away, making it closer than Walt Disney World is to Ohio, but we like WDW more. No wins here.

Sigh. I don’t really mind Utah, when I don’t have to chew the air. I even felt a little disloyal by the time I got to the grocery store, so we’re having green Jello with dinner tonight, with oranges in it and everything. I just need to get a little bit of that beehive spirit back!

(Note: Ohio’s state symbol isn’t a beehive. Plus one to Ohio.)

Read more here:
Utah vs. Ohio

I’m not what you would call a “yes” person. I really like being at home and doing my thing, so I lean towards saying “no” to going out and getting involved in extra stuff and doing things that I probably ought to be doing. I’m kind of adventurous, but really I just like to stick to the stuff I know. And, unlike many of my friends, I have no problem using the phrases “Sorry, but I’m swamped and can’t help” or “Not this time, but try me again later.”

But I’m definitely having a “yes” kind of month.

It all started with my new year’s resolutions and wanting to change up my life a bit. Although I’m a pretty happy camper in my little situation, I felt like I was starting to mentally (and physically) atrophy a bit from just sitting around the house doing my thing. So, I decided 2010 was a good year to take on some new challenges. I decided to run a half-marathon, get more involved in the community, and pick up some extra freelance work instead of spending so much time searching for a 9-5 job. It was time to break out of my rut and push myself into new situtations

Fast forward five weeks:

My quest for new situations has been successful…maybe even a little too successful. I went to that blogging conference and joined the ranks of people who treat blogging like a job and, as a result, the Disney Wedding Blog has exploded. I have seven times the traffic that I did a month ago and therefore I have seven times the emails to answer, spotlights to run, and posts to plan out. I’m also getting contacted right and left by vendors who want to talk to me about giveaways and additional programs, which is great for the site but a little overwhelming for the Carly. I even have a couple of different multimedia projects going on that will make the blog even bigger. It’s great, but it’s all happened really fast and I haven’t quite caught my balance yet…

I also opened the door to some freelance work and got hit with so much stuff all at once that it looks like I’ll be making more in the next six months than I made last year working my 9-5. This is completely amazing, but I haven’t quite gotten used to the idea of being my own boss and setting schedules and doing all the things I’m going to have to do to make this work. I think I’ve got it under control, but my desk just looks like a giant haystack of post-it notes right now…

Finally, a big “yes” went from “yes, I’ll fly out to help you with some costumes” to “yes, now that I’m here I can do these as well” to “yes, I can act as a consultant for the whole show” to “yes, I’ll fly back out, handle the costumes for a cast of 94, and stay until opening night.” So, even though I got back to Utah yesterday, I’m headed back to California in the next couple of days and I’ll be elbows deep in Beauty and the Beast until the end of the month. It completely sucks that I’ll be away from Kyle for so long, but I think I’ll have a pretty good time while I’m out there and I’ll be able to see my family more than I usually do.

All of these “yes” moments have led to good things, but now I’m in a place where I wake up and spend my day trying to wrap my brain around a million radically different projects. I’m out of my comfort zone (to say the least!) and I haven’t been bored in a really, really long time. I just hope I’m not taking on too many things at once…

Oh, and check back tomorrow for a “yes” that you don’t want to miss!

Read more here:
Just Say Yes

I’m not a huge fan of Vegas.

Vegas takes a lot of energy and a lot of money. It also has the uncanny ability to make you feel like everyone else in the city has more energy, more money, more youth, and less body fat than you ever will. Vegas is what I imagine Disneyland would be like if I had a really bad hangover.

That being said, I was looking forward to this trip to Vegas. Chris and Kristen were getting married at Caesar’s Palace and they are two of my absolute favorite people. Plus, Kyle had never been to Vegas, so I figured we could take in the sights together and that would quell some of my anti-Vegas vibes.

Unfortunately, Kyle had to go to Ohio, as you all know, and this threw a bit of a monkey wrench into our plans. We had been planning to drive down, but I didn’t want to make the five hour drive through the desert by myself, so at the last minute I booked a plane ticket. I figured I’d pop in on Saturday morning, go to the wedding, and then pop back out on Sunday afternoon. I even convinced Jed to make the three hour drive from his new home in Irvine, CA, so we could pop in and out together.

On Saturday morning I caught an hour long flight and got into Vegas early in the morning. I had booked a room at the Marriott by the convention center to avoid all the traffic on the strip, so I was able to settle down in my quiet hotel room as soon as I got in. Jed was still on his way and it was too hot to do anything so I snuggled up in the king size bed and watched hotel room television.

Jed got to town in the afternoon and we dressed up in our finest and headed to the strip. We had some time to kill, so we went to the forum shops at Caesar’s Palace and shopped for a bit before grabbing some pre-wedding snacks. Finally, at six, we headed out to the gardens for the big event.

But…

When we got outside, there was a wedding going on and it was NOT Kristen and Chris’s wedding. Nobody around looked familiar and there was a general sense of things not being as they should. Jed jokingly asked if I had the right day and all of a sudden it all sunk in…Kristen and Chris had made a big thing about getting married on 9-6-09. They even filled their invitation with confetti nines and sixes. And we were there on the 5th.

I have no excuse, other than that the events of this summer had scrambled my brain. I, the wedding queen, totally showed up a day early for the wedding. For no damn reason at all.

There was a lot of panic and shock and cursing and general chaos on the way back to the hotel, but after a hot shower I was able to get things under control. I had to change my flight and book another night in the hotel, but it all worked out and Jed was such a trooper that he actually stayed an extra day with me so he could be my date for the wedding. We ended up hitting the town that night, taking in the strip, and grabbing a really terrible steak and egg dinner at 2AM, just because we could. Hey, when in Vegas…

Read more here:
What Happened in Vegas (Part One)