Did you think I had died?

Hello all!

You might have thought that I had died or something, and I could give all sorts of excuses about how busy I've been, but the truth of the matter is that I thought about writing many, many times, but didn't think I had anything to say.

But for those of you who know me, I ALWAYS have something to say! Haha!

I am getting ready to start a new job in a week or so and as part of the starting process, my manager had me write up a business plan. A business plan that includes my goals and objectives as well as activities that I will do to accomplish them. I laid out both my short-term and long-term goals and also detailed the reason "why" I want to accomplish them...and the "why" is actually the most important part of the business plan.

As with so many things in life, my professional self is intimately interwoven with my personal life. Writing up this business plan forced me to reflect on where I am in my life, where I am headed right now and IF that is indeed where I want to end up.

Doing this excercise helped me to concisely explain what I want in my life and I thought I would share them with you. Basically it comes down to four simple things. I realized that I want health, wealth, happiness and love. Just like with so many things in life, each of these simple words may mean something different to me than they might mean to someone else, so over the next few posts, I will explain what they mean to me.

Halloween

Halloween happens to be one of my favorite holidays. I enjoy the anticipation of creating a costume and then dressing up and being in character...I really should have gone in to theather or something like that.

In years past, I almost always have thrown my own Halloween parties. However, this year I left the party planning to others. I went to three different parties and of course, for each of them had to wear a different costume.

Friday night I dressed up as Princess Leia. This costume was inspired by a trip to Disneyland with my family a couple of years ago when I walked into the Star Tours gift shop and came across a Princess Leia headband complete with the huge cinnamon bun hair pieces. I knew that I could build a costume around this...and I had a total blast doing just that. I went to a thrift store down the street from my house and was totally amazed to find the exact dress and belt that I wanted. The dress happens to be an old LDS temple dress from the 80's or so, and the belt...well...I have no idea who besides a Jedi Princess would have ever worn this belt. It is made of metal and looks has a shield buckle on it. It was perfect!

Saturday night I was invited to a Zombie party thrown by a friend of mine who is famous for his parties...and it was not disappointing in the slightest. I didn't have time to get too creative with my costume for this one...but really almost anything goes as a zombie. So, I just put on my ugliest shirt (or prettiest for those of you who like sequence) put on a little white and green make up and ratted my hair as high as it would go. This party was so much fun! We played some really creative games, had dinner served and were even entertained when a few fellow zombies spontaneously performed Michael Jackson's Thriller dance. It was awesome!

After the zombie party, I went home and changed to go to another party. For this one, I chose to go as Wonder Woman...who happens to be my real alter ego. We went to a party that ended up being closed down by the police about an hour after we arrived. I know...you are probably thinking..."Melissa, aren't you a little OLD to be going to parties where the cops show up?" And the answer to that is "YES!" But...this is my life!

All in all, it was a very fun Halloween weekend and I can't wait to start thinking about what I will be next year!

Life Lessons

You know, everyday I try to be a good person. I know that I am no where near perfect and that I have many things to work on and many things that I want to change about myself and my life. I try to be kind to others, I go to church regularly, I read the scriptures, I say my prayers, I pay my tithing, and I try to serve others whenever I can. I do all of these things becaues it feels good to do them, but also because there is a part of me (maybe a BIG part of me) that wants to be blessed for my good behavior. So every night as I am kneeling before going to bed, as I say my prayers, I thank the Lord for all that He has given me and then I proceed to ask for those things which I would like to be blessed with.

I have to admit that sometimes I get frustrated because it seems like there are some things that I have been asking for for a very long time. There is a part of me that thinks that the reason that I haven't been blessed with those things that I want so very much is because I am not righteous enough. Or that I haven't been dilligent enough about reading the scriptures. Or that I said a mean thing about someone or did something bad so now I don't deserve those blessings. Or...the worst thing...that God just doesn't love me enough to bless me with those things that I want.

The Lord has said, "If you love Me keep My commandments." However, I wonder if what I am really saying to Him is "If You love me keep my commandments." Meaning that I think He only loves me if He grants me every wish of my heart....if He keeps my commandments to Him. And therefore if I don't get the blessings I want that He must not love me. How silly is that?

What it comes down to is this...I know that God lives and that He truly is in charge and knows everything. Deep down I know that He loves me, even if sometimes I have a hard time feeling that love because I have hardened my heart against it. I know that He wants good things for me. What I need to remind myself of is that because He loves me He has a plan for me and He knows the right time for every element of that plan to come to pass. He also wants me to have experiences that will make me a better person and that will teach me what I need to know to progress. Gosh...I hate learning these kinds of lessons!

Vegas Baby!

So for those of you who are wondering if I am still alive...I am! I have been really busy lately and haven't had time to do any posts. But the blogging drought is over and I am back!

Last weekend I took a trip to Las Vegas with a bunch of friends. We had a great time. The weather was beautiful and we were able to do tons of fun stuff! Of course we ate lots of good food, we saw a Cirque du Soleil show called Ka, we met Donny and Marie Osmond, we did some shopping, and of course saw some interesting and unexplainable things.

I think that Las Vegas has to be the best place on earth for people watching. You could literally have a seat for an hour or so and see more interesting people in that one hour than you could in an entire year in any other city. I saw Elvis and Michael Jackson...apparently they are both alive and living in Vegas. There was some big boxing match at MGM so we saw tons of celebrities including some NBA stars and a couple of rap musicians. I saw a girl who looked like she had forgotten to put on her pants...but it turned out that it was actually a dress she was wearing and it had ridden up in the back! Yikes!

All in all, we had a great time and were happy to come home...apparently a weekend in Vegas is enough for me!

Fun Lady....what?

So, now that I am another year older and another year wiser, I have decided that it might be time to start lying about my age.

I was speaking with a girl from work today. She just graduated from college and is the ripe old age of 24. She is trying to decide if she wants to go to grad school because she still hasn't decided what she wants to be "when she grows up". I told her not to worry about it because I am still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up too. She started laughing and told me that I am such a "fun lady".

Without her knowing it, she just called me the most offensive name I can think of. I am not a "lady"...I am still a "girl", aren't I??? Well, maybe not a "girl", but a "young woman" or a "young adult" at the least, right??? It is the same feeling I get when I go to a restaurant or a store and the clerk or waitress calls me "ma'am". I am not a "ma'am"! I am a "miss"! When did I get old??? I am not sure, but it is really kind of depressing.

Aaahhh...my birthday

So...today is my birthday. Every year it gets harder and harder to celebrate the fact that I am actually getting older. To make it a little more interesting, I decided to see what significant events have happened on August 25th in history...strangely enough, they are all connected to me in some way or another...go figure!

1768 Captain James Cook began his first voyage (He is the one who "discovered" Hawaii)

1916 The US National Park Service is created (I love hiking!)

1944 Paris is liberated by the Allies in World War II (I speak French...well...kinda)

1814 Washington DC is burned and the White House is destroyed by the British in the Battle of

1812 (I am going to DC for the first time in October)

1927 Althea Gibson is born. She was the first African American woman to play on the world tennis tour and the first to win a Grand Slam title in 1956. (I heart tennis so much!)

1930 Sean Connery is born. (I know that I am destined to marry James Bond)

1949 Gene Simmons of Kiss is born. (I got all of my make up tips from him)

1961 Billy Ray Cyrus is born. (Wow! I have an achy breaky heart too!)

1968 Rachel Ray is born. (Thank goodness! Now I can cook a meal in 30 minutes of less)

1970 Claudia Schiffer is born. (I also do a little modeling on the side...such a small world!)

So, as you can see, August 25th is a very important day in history...and now you know something that I'll bet you didn't know yesterday! Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! I am excited for the coming year and all of the experiences and adventures that await me!

The Best Worst Movie

Last weekend, a friend of mine Jason Steadman, invited us to the Salt Lake Film Festival to see a documentary called the Best Worst Movie. This documentary is about another movie that he was in that was filmed in Morgan, Utah back in 1990, the move is called Troll 2.

Troll 2 has got to be one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. Not only does it have absolutely NOTHING to do with Troll 1, but there aren't even any trolls in the movie at all. There are goblins however. The premise of the movie is that a family goes on a vacation to a town called Nilbog (goblin spelled backwards) where basically the entire population of the town are human-eating goblins.

The movie was intended to be a horror film, but it is in fact so ridiculous that it has unfortunately (or fortunately) become more of a comedy. It is so bad, in fact, that for a time, the film was rated the "worst film of all time" on the popular movie site IMBD.com. Needless to say that when it was first released all of the actors were a little emberrassed about it, however, over the past 20 years it has gained an astonishing cult following and is now quite popular. So popular in fact, that Jason travels the world and attends different movie premiers signing autographs to sold out crowds. They also go to movie trade shows where they sell Troll 2 T-shirts and other memorabilia.

The documentary, called "The Best Worst Movie", is being shown throughout the country at different film festivals and is quite honestly one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. If you ever get the chance to see "The Best Worst Movie" I would HIGHLY recommend it. And if you really want to live on the wild side or ever need a good laugh, go to your local video store and see if you can rent Troll 2. It just might change your life...or at the very least...you would know what to do if you were ever attacked by trolls...I mean goblins.