Happy 60th Dad!

On June 22nd my dad hit a milestone birthday--60! On Saturday my brother, sister, grandkids, Jojo and I headed up to Brigham City to celebrate the day of his birth sixty years ago.

Since it was such an important event, we had shish kebabs, cake and ice cream, bubbles at the lake, a trip to the poppies, smores, and fireworks. Oh, and presents. I might've mentioned in my post last year about my dad's birthday that he is extremely hard to buy for. Thankfully, though, the Jazz got a "new" logo and we were able to get him a new hat with the "new" logo. He also got some socks and a new shirt. I gave him a picture book with memories of some of his old Young Men that he used to work with up in Idaho. I think he liked it, and it was nice to read the incredible things they had to say about him.

A few photos from the night:


Happy Birthday Dad! Looking forward to you Father's Day present--a BYU football game!

Backstreet's Back!

Last night, Lindsay-loo and I took a time machine back to high school. Well, not quite, but we did hop in my car and drive downtown to catch a Backstreet Boys concert!

In junior high and high school, Lindsay was in LOVE with the Backstreet Boys. She went to one of their concerts when they were at the peak of their popularity and claimed, for many years after, that it was the best night of her life! So when I heard they were coming to Salt Lake for another tour (albeit waaaaay past their peak), I promptly bought us tickets.

Watching the Boys dance out on stage, singing, "Backstreet's Back, Alright!" was a little surreal. And kinda weird. These guys are grown men, with wives and children (and receding hairlines), singing their hits from at least ten years ago about love and all that teenybopper stuff I loved so much back in the day. I must admit that my older self doesn't feel the same sort of connection to their pop songs.



They're short one of their original members, Lindsay's favorite, Kevin, while my favorite (back in the day, because everyone had to have a favorite) was Brian. Yeah, back in the day I liked blondes. Even with one less member, they sang all their hits, even my favorite, "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely." They also found the time to have five costume changes. It felt oddly like it should've been a stage show in Vegas.

Regardless, it was fun to hang out with Lindsay and relive our youth and high school days.

My final take: the Backstreet Boys, while decent singers and dancers, I think benefit from the slick production they knew as popstars and work better on cd or in a video, as their singing was stifled by the live-ness of the event and sounded a little weak.

No More Drama

I like to think I'm a fairly easy-going person. I avoid drama and prefer things to be simple and low-key. Today was not one of those days.

Drama at work. Drama at home (sort of). Who's working harder, who's not, who's buying the soap and who's not contributing. It all just makes me crazy. It's days like these where I wish I worked alone and lived alone.

And the thing is, most of the drama recently could have been avoided with just a little communication. And perhaps some adaptability. Or if I worked with all boys instead of girls.

On the plus side for today: I think I actually did pretty good on my first Stats test. And, rockin' the Backstreet Boys concert tonight with Lindsay-loo.

Ward Date Night

A few lessons learned from my Ward Date Night Activity:
--throwing a bunch of single people together and pairing them up is a good idea in theory
--yeah, we get it, we should be dating
--even though I was the same me all night long, each "date" was decidedly very different and netted different feelings
--when you sit down with a girl/guy, don't immediately bombard with these questions in rapid succession: what do you do for fun, where do you work, what can I know about you?
--the best dates are the ones where you just talk about whatever, without having to pin down every single rudimentary question in the first few minutes
--don't come on too strong
--I have very different ideas about dating than some girls
--if there are awkward silences on the drive home, and you don't care about it enough to try to make conversation, it's not a good sign
--dating is really about finding that person you have some sort of connection with, and unfortunately it doesn't always happen on the first, second, third, fourth one

And the single greatest thing I realized last night was that I am an awkward hugger. Regardless of whether I like you or don't, I can't seem to get the hug just right. If I like you it's awkward because, well, I like you and I'm thinking about it too much. If I don't, then it's awkward because I don't want to be that close to you.

Dear Statistics Class,

After only a few short days together, I think I know you well enough to break the news to you: I don't like you. This may seem harsh, or rash, or even brash of me, but facts are facts. So I will tolerate you for these nine weeks we are together, but once I have my grade and am good to go for grad school, I will leave and not think of you again (except that I probably will because you'll be useful in my urban planning classes. But I'm not going to like it).

Sincerely,
Julie

How to Salvage a Bummer Day

For some reason, the last few hours of work were quite the bummer. No specific reason for this; it just was. Two ways to turn the day around real fast.

First--seeing Ivy, Elliett and Moses. Ivy and Elliett had a dance performance tonight that I went to straight after work. They were so cute, and seeing them and little Mo always makes my day. It's also nice to see my brother, sister and mom.

(Elliett is the shortest one in the middle, looking at the other girl to know what to do! Ivy is second from the right.)

Second--concert in the park. With the performer being Peter Breinholt. I love outdoor concerts in the summer and I LOVE Peter Breinholt, so it was pretty much win-win.

A Block

My friend Pammy is a writer. She currently has writer's block. I think I have sympathy writer's block. I sorta feel no desire to write on my blog, despite various drafts, because nothing is coming out right.