Best and Worst of 2007 (inspired by Sarah-Ashley)

Best Device: DVR. The DVR is the best thing that has been invented since the tv itself. I have no idea how I have lived for the last three months without it. I live with my sister for a bit and they had DVR in their home and it was the best tv watching time of my life. Never missed a show, fast forward through commercials, and the newest episode of Conan was always waiting for me at the end of a long day. Honoralbe mention goes to my hot curlers that I didn't purchase this year but have started using a lot more than I ever have and that make my hair look fantastic. Also, to the Sandwhich Maker I got for Christmas. It is not my number one because I just got it and have only used it once. Check back with me next year, it just might make it's way up the list.

Worst Device: The ear buds that came with my i-pod. I honestly don't know what it is. Maybe my ears are misshapen, or maybe the ear buds are the worst thing ever invented, but they don't fit in my ears and when I do manage to shove them in at a weird angle to get them to hang on, they make my ears hurt so badly after about ten minutes that I honestly think about cutting them off.

Best Movie: I will agree with Sarah-Ashley on this one and say Waitress. So nice I saw it twice. Honorable mentions go to Hairspray and Enchanted. I can never resist a musical.

Worst Movie: Tie between License to Wed and Evan Almighty. Which I happened to see in a double feature. Can you believe that luck? Worst four hours of my life. Honorable mention goes to Across the Universe. What a disappointment.

Best Book: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. A book about a boy who loses his father in 9/11 that made me laugh aloud dozens of times? How does Jonathan Safran Foer do it? I'm not sure, but give me more.

Worst Book: A Thousand Splendid Suns. Alright, Khaled Hosseini, we get it! Living in Afghanistan SUUUUCCKKKS.

Best Idea: Moving in with Brooke and John. And while this probably can't be classified as the best idea of 2007 since technically it happened in 2006, it affected and influenced about 8.5 months of my life and it was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. I had an opportunity to get to know my family better, I learned a lot and it has been the most comfortable I have felt in a living situation in a very long time. Also, it gave me the opportunity to live this close to New York City, to see the sights, shows and great friends. Add in multiple trips to Conan and you can't ask for a better time. East coast, I miss you.

Worst Idea: Shipping my car from Connecticut to Las Vegas. What was I thinking? Sure, it cost about the same and sure it saved miles on my car but it took 2.5 weeks to get here and waiting for it almost made me lose my mind.

Best Job: Staples Copy Center. More diversity than I have ever experienced in my entire life, more accomplished than I have ever felt in a job in my entire life. To bad the pay was so crappy. Honorable mention goes to my current job, who knew working with lawyers could be so fun.

Worst Job: Babies R Us. Never could find time to train me, never hated being there more. Good riddance.

Best City: Newport, Rhode Island; New York City; Boston. Any city on the east coast. Loved them all.

Worst City: Las Vegas, Nevada. Been here three months: Jobless for one month, car accident, car broken into, over $600 stolen from my bank account. I hate you too, Las Vegas.

Ooohhhh... She said a swear!

Ok, that's it. It's over and done. I promise. I really promise. I am going to stop swearing. Right. Now.

Onto other things, Myra and I were joking today about all the things that could be wrong with a certain boy. I think it is a fantastic list but we are always looking for more. Got any good ones?

1. He could be a jerk.
2. He could be nice, but not interested.
3. He could be interested, but do nothing about it.
4. He could be nice, but not have a strong testimony.
5. He could have so much baggage.
6. He could have been married.
7. He could smell bad.
8. He could have poor dental hygiene.
9. He could be arrogant.
10. He could have a computer obsession.
11. He could have a porn addiction.
12. He could have another life as a mass murderer.
13. He could have 3 kids that live somewhere else.
14. He could be a vampire. (Although, that might not be a bad thing.)
15. He could be gay.
16. He could have had a sex change operation.
17. He could be pregnant

!!!

This project of attempting to fill my life with Christmas cheer has been a success. I have had a good attitude about Christmas and I have had a fantastic time. Thanks to all who have supported me in this anti-hate quest.
Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas Card

Merry Christmas from Me and My Roommates!

Also, Myra did a wonderful year end wrap up that you should all check out here.

Various Things.

I H.A.T.E.

-Avery Gummed Index Tabs that I have to lick everyday.

-Nervous Laughter. I understand being nervous. I understand laughing. I just have no idea how the two go together. STOP LAUGHING!

-Trying to pretend to get all excited about cheesy Christmas activities.

-When someone has the same ring as me and their phone keeps ringing near my office and I freak out because I think that I have not turned my phone off while at work.

-Anxiety

-Speaker phone

-Not having a date for my work Christmas party.

-When someone is in the conference room (two doors down from my office) with a client and they leave the door open and SCU-REEEAM at each other.

OK, that was great to get that out.

Onto other things, something else I love about Christmas:

My families Christmas Advent Calendar.

I have such fond memories of my mom tying candy canes to the felt Christmas tree and we each got to take a turn pulling ornaments out of the numbered boxes, putting them on the tree and eating a candy cane. One of my favorite things about Christmas.

As a side: I love advent calendars in general. I think they are a great idea when looking forward to something to make a paper chain and pull one off everyday. It sort of makes you feel like you are doing something as a physical reminder of something good to come. I have a goal to incorporate Advent calendars in my everyday life. (Also, remember Brooke? This was the only way you could get a hold of Payton last Christmas when he couldn't stop talking about The Big Red Car!)

Mom and Dad, a special note to you:

I have been eating these for the last few days. Someone brought them into my work and I know that it is something you guys would LOVE.

Class

I think for a long time I was under the impression that all people with money had class. As I have gotten older and wiser over the years, I have realized this is not always true. (See Britney and Paris.) But for some reason it still caught me off guard today when I had to run to the grocery store and saw a bright shiny new Jaguar was going through the drive-thru at Burger King. And then there was another one in the parking lot. (Who knows, it very well could have been Paris.) Anyway I really like it.
In other news, I went to a murder mystery party last night with a few people from my ward. I have never been to one of these parties before and was a little nervous when they told me that we were all going to be playing parts. I had no idea that was how it worked. Imagine my surprise when the character that I played was a hot bikini model on vacation in Hawaii from New York. Perfect. As I read further, I learned that I was not always a fashion model but at one point was "chubby and freckled." Oh really?

Letter.

Dear Mr. Attorney,
I know that you work hard. I know that it must be difficult dealing with irate clients. However, if your client is so irate that he is yelling the f-word three times every sentence, please Mr. Attorney, pick him up off of speaker phone.
Thanks for your help in this.
Luv,
Cassidy

Curing Christmas Blues

My friend Craig wrote the following article for his college newspaper. It brings up some great points and since I was the inspiration, I thought that it would fine to share it here. (Just to clarify, I'm the person he is referencing.)

Curing Christmas Blues

I was talking to a friend the other day who confided in me that she just has never been a big fan of Christmas. This completely baffled me. Christmas is a member of my top five favorite things: raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles, warm woolen mittens and Christmas. That is my list… all those things are awesome. It is impossible for me to imagine a world where Christmas isn't fantastic to everyone. If I did imagine it my head would implode. For this reason and others I try not to think about that possibility, and it made it kind of hard to relate to her disdain.
However, she hates Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be that her head wasn't screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that her shoes were too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that no one has ever given her a few really good reasons why Christmas is a very nice holiday. I come to this conclusion by default because the other two reasons are silly.
But if that is the only problem, maybe brainstorming two or three really good reasons why I think Christmas is terrific would be helpful: Christmas movies, mistletoe and family dinners.
Christmas Movies: Every year Christmas movies convince me that someone is going to fall madly in love with me over the holidays. This hasn't actually happened yet, but when it does I'm convinced bad ice skating will be pivotal. The most important factor of a Christmas romance is that you need to be a really bad ice skater. The amount of affection a girl will have for you is directly proportional to how badly you skate. Thank you, Hollywood, for this invaluable tip.
Traditionally, Claymation is one of the most memorable things about Christmas movies. Not only were they packed with killer special effects, they were also historically accurate. Take the account of the Little Drummer Boy, for example. Nothing speculative about that story. The Little Drummer Boy was an essential member of the nativity story as quoted in this biblical verse, "… Also the little drummer boy was there. Now back to our story…." Plus, the Claymation in these classics paved the way for Claymation to be used in other iconic movies in the future like "Clash of the Titans" and "Die Hard with a Vengeance."
Mistletoe: I have never really used mistletoe, but I'm sure it can yield impressive results. I'm also sure getting those results might get you arrested. Still, it's a great concept, and I'm sure it works really well for bad ice skaters.
Family Dinners: Most of my extended family dinners separate the family into the "adult table" and the "kid table." I have just recently graduated from the kid table. It only took 21 years, but I really made something of myself this year. I think maybe my performance at previous kid table engagements may have impressed those at the adult table. For example, my ability to cut my own meat put me head and shoulders above other kid table occupants under consideration. This Christmas I hope to further solidify my newfound adulthood by wiping my own face and by being taller than those at the kid table.
I'm afraid that's about all the room I have to go over some reasons why Christmas should be universally loved. But hopefully those reasons have given a few people the motivation to get started on overcoming their Christmas hate. If not, I'm afraid Christmas is going to come anyway. It will come without ribbons; it will come without tags; it will come without packages, boxes or bags. You can puzzle for hours 'til your puzzler is sore. Then you'll think of something you haven't before. Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more. Maybe it has a lot more to do with how well you skate than you ever realized.

Great job, Craig!

Too Much?

Ok, here’s the thing, I know that this blog has the potential to piss off a lot of people but that is not my intent. I just want some clarification, some understanding. I want someone to help me understand. Because to be honest, I just don’t.
In the last few days there has been a lot of media about Michael Vick and the sentence he was given for his illegal dog fighting and gambling activity. He was recently sentenced to 23 months. But, that is just for the federal charges. It looks like he could face up to 10 years for the state charges. Ok, this seems like a lot to me. Don’t get me wrong, I think that what Michael Vick did was wrong and unlawful and honestly horrifying. But, when compared with other things that go on in our world today, ten years seems like an awful lot with all the child molesters and sex offenders we’ve got roaming our streets. Why is it when I think about what Michael Vick did, I think that it was wrong for sure, but 10 years? Come on. An entire decade? It really seems too much. And that got me thinking, why does 10 years seem too long to me? Maybe it is because I hear about Rapists or Child Molesters who are sentenced to way less than even the two years that Vick got and he is not even done being tried. Why are people who are hurting women and children getting such short sentences and yet someone who hurts dogs and gambles gets much, much worse? I just don’t think that he deserves 10 years. Why isn’t there more of a balance in this?
(I want to clarify that I had never even heard of Michael Vick before this whole thing came out, so this is not a case where being a fan rules over logic.)
Also, I promise that tomorrow I am going to continue my Christmas list.

Uncomfortably Close

I've decided that the best way to get to know someone is to take uncomfortablly close pictures with them. These pictures represent the first and second times I have ever met this man, Jordan Smith. And I feel great about it.

Day 7

I am an unashamed tv lover. I will never understand people who think that they are above tv or that perhaps tv is going to make you stupid. So, that being said, onto Christmas Love # 7: My Favorite tv Programs Annual Christmas Shows.

Day 6

Maybe this love doesn't really have anything to do with the Christmas season, but it definitely has something to do with winter and since Christmas is in winter, here you go.

Christmas Love #6: Scarves, gloves and hats.

Day 5

Sorry it's been a few days. Life can get so busy sometimes, don't you think?
Christmas Love # 5: Singing Christmas Songs at Church.
I have always hated Christmas music about Santa Claus, or jingling bells or reindeer. Nothing can put me in the Christmas Spirit faster than music about Christs birth. I feel great about singing them in Church. My favorite is Hark! The Herald Angles Sing. What's yours?