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"Change, more than anything else, is what the human mind fears the most"
This past summer, this unbelievable, dream of a summer, has sadly come to a close. I thank those who took part into making this summer fabulous. I will forever remember days spent out on the boat, late night sushi, memories in the city, time spent with friends, and much more. I have loved this summer and I am sad for it to end, though I am ready to go back to school.
But, leaving the summer behind is a form of growing up. The night before I left to go back to school, I had a slight breakdown (thankfully Nick was there to calm my nerves). Time finally caught up to me and made me realize how much life has changed, how much I have changed. I was leaving home to more into an apartment, making it my last night at home. My last night in my own bed, my last night with my family, my last night with my friends. However, the only thing I could bring myself to do, was to sulk in my bed and cry. I knew this year was going to be so much different from the rest. I was now, officially on my own, I left my nest. My mom is now in the process of changing my childhood room into a room for my youngest brother. My pink room will be turned into some boyish color with a new boy-like bed spread and all of my pictures, earnings, and trophies will be removed from the walls and shelves. It is no longer my room, I no longer have my place.
I am leaving behind my home, my best friend, and my boyfriend. My best friend will be leaving for Spain at the end of the month for 10 months, and I have not yet come to terms with that. I will be missing her 21st birthday and she will be missing mine. I won't be able to send her random texts, discuss HP life lessons, phone her when I need some clarity, or bid her off when she is leaving for the biggest adventure of her life thus far. Please don't take me the wrong way, because I am unbelievably happy and excited for her. It is going to be such an experience and she is going to love every moment of it. Spain is where she is supposed to be. Maybe she will even find a Spain boy out there (I hope she does, she deserves a great boy). It just sucks to be away from your best friend for that long, I am already dreading it and she hasn't even left yet.
Coming to terms with all I am leaving behind I hit a wall running at full speed. I was put in my place, the place where you realize you are growing up and you can't stop it. I don't want to grow up. I am not ready to give over my room, I am not ready for my best friend to leave for Spain, and I am not ready to be away from my boyfriend. I am not ready to be away from Nick, to test our relationship. I liked summer, I liked where we were. This summer taught us a lot about ourselves and each other. He is one of the most beautiful beings I have ever grown to know. I love this boy, not only as my boyfriend, not only as a friend, but I love him as a person. He has changed and shaped me in ways I have never thought were possible. His patience and heart, is something I admire most about him. I know that things between us will be stretched and tested while I am in school. Especially since right now being the busiest time of my life, considering I am a fall collegiate athlete with a full class load and a job. But I know that must there ever be a time where I am having doubt, second thoughts, insecurities, he will be there to pick me up and clear my head and I will forever be thankful for that. I will forever be thankful for him.
I am trying to come to terms with letting go of things you cannot change: life. Life is forever changing and there is no stopping it; it's a constant moving train with no place to get off. It hurts to grow, it hurts to accept change, and anybody who tells you it doesn't, lied. Sometimes, the more you change, the more things stay the same, and sometimes, change is everything.
I am currently an intern working for a company
called trustaff. We have entered into The Business Journal's Social Madness Challenge. We just recently beat out everyone in our city bracket and have
moved onto the National Competition! This is where you come in. We need your
help, I need your help. If you could take a moment and vote for us, I would
greatly appreciate it! We are listed on the Social Madness bracket under "Medium Companies" and are location on the right side, 3rd bracket down. You can vote for us there, like us on Facebook, follow us on twitter, and connect with us on LinkedIn. Help a sista out please! I will send much love your way if you do!
For as long as I can remember, I have despised tea. I hate
all tea, any kind, any flavor. I have tried it multiple times throughout my
life and my taste buds have refused to shift. It wasn’t until recently that I
have actually wanted to like tea. I want to shop around and buy different flavors;
I want to sip on it during the day; I want to blog about it; I WANT TO LIKE
TEA. I have tried to convince myself to like it, but it doesn’t work. Honestly,
I am jealous of all you tea drinkers out there. I am envious of your perfect
mug filled with assortments of herbal teas. I wish I liked tea because, quite
frankly, tea makes you cool!
A couple weeks ago some friends and I traveled to downtown
(you can read about the visit(s) here) and we stopped by the local fine tea
shop. There were hundreds of tea
options to choose from. I loved being surrounded with the aromas and smelling
all of the herbs.
I ended up falling in love with one of the teas, Caramel
& Almond Black Tea, and besides my great odium for tea, I bought it. It was
so out of my element, but I was determined to try it.
So tonight, I finally built up the courage to make myself a
steaming cup of it…and…I LOVED IT. One of The Bests told me to add milk (which
I substituted for half and half) and sugar. It was perfect. This is the first
baby step on the journey of accepting the greatness of tea.
I give all of my thanks to Churchhill's Fine Teas for turning my taste buds in the tea direction. Check them out, I promise you won't be unsatisfied.
I have been contemplating on changing
my blog theme for awhile now, I just never really wanted to put in the effort
it takes to do a total blog make over. Since I work as a graphic designer, I
need small tasks that I can go to when that step away from what I'm working on moment comes. I need that time to focus and regroup. Well, as I stepped away from an
ongoing project, I didn’t know where to go and my brain was in a slump. I
figured I might try out some new blog designs. And that’s where this mustard
yellow and gray (or grey?) began. I have been smitten with mustard yellow
lately. I even ordered my new bedding for my apartment in a chevron, mustard
yellow pattern. I lurve it and I home you lurve it too!
Also, ah I forgot to mention! I have new pages. Whoo. There is one titled "Favorites," which is home to all of my favorite posts. Read them if you like. There is also "Portfolio." I figured since I was an art student I should probably have a section to showcase all of my work. Since the fall semester is coming up I figured it is a perfect time to include that to my overall layout.
There are some cool other new clickable stuff. Just look around.
Isn't yellow so bright and cheery? It makes me happy.
Growing up, I have always lived outside the city. It was always an
adventure to drive into downtown; I have always loved it. Just this summer I begin
using the city for all it has to offer. I have seen more of downtown this
summer than I ever have before. I have explored new restaurants, shops,
hangouts and more. There is never a dull moment while being in the city. Aside
from some crazies that you get from any city you venture to, it is a great city
to be near. I live far enough to get that small town feel, but close enough to
escape when I can.
Lately, my friends and I have been eating out downtown, A LOT. I don’t
mind it though because I am never disappointed with a restaurant of choice. My
favorite place we have been to lately was a bar & pub, and their specialty...hotdogs,
of all things. I was blown away. Everything was so delicious. If I could, I would
eat there every week. Everyone I went with ordered something different, and not
one of us had a bad thing to eat.
The Lindsay Lohan Hotdog.
The next day we headed over to the market. There is just something about
markets that I love with the fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers, little shops,
and homemade soaps. There is this bread stand at the market that always has a
huge line and sells out of bread within the first hour, well all I wanted was
to try some of this bread. Unfortunately, when I went up to buy some, all he
had were English muffins left. However, there was an order that no one had came
to pick up yet and at the end of the day, if it was still there, it was mine.
And guess what, IT WAS MINE! The guy never came and picked it up. Thank you
forgetful sir for not picking up your bread. It is a potato rosemary bread. Oh
so tasty, especially with a little mayo, basil and a tomato.
I bought tea while being at the market. For those of you that don’t
know, I hate tea. I try so hard to like the flavor, but my taste buds won’t
allow it. Well the tea I bought smelled so good that it made me want to drink
it, so I figured I would give it a shot. I have still yet to try it, but I will
let you know when I do.
We got our hands dotted on every part where our lines intersected on our hands for a project a group was doing. They are working on creating an entire night sky made up of constellation made up entirely of hand palms.
My bread.
"1953
- 2012
I was Born in Salt Lake City, March 27th 1953. I
died of Throat Cancer on July 10th 2012. I went to six different grade schools,
then to Churchill, Skyline and the U of U. I loved school, Salt Lake City, the
mountains, Utah. I was a true Scientist. Electronics, chemistry, physics, auto
mechanic, wood worker, artist, inventor, business man, ribald comedian,
husband, brother, son, cat lover, cynic. I had a lot of fun. It was an honor
for me to be friends with some truly great people. I thank you. I've had great
joy living and playing with my dog, my cats and my parrot. But, the one special
thing that made my spirit whole, is my long love and friendship with my
remarkable wife, my beloved Mary Jane. I loved her more than I have words to
express. Every moment spent with my Mary Jane was time spent wisely. Over time,
I became one with her, inseparable, happy, fulfilled. I enjoyed one good life.
Traveled to every place on earth that I ever wanted to go. Had every job that I
wanted to have. Learned all that I wanted to learn. Fixed everything I wanted
to fix. Eaten everything I wanted to eat. My life motto was: "Anything for
a Laugh". Other mottos were "If you can break it, I can fix it",
"Don't apply for a job, create one". I had three requirements for
seeking a great job; 1 - All glory, 2 - Top pay, 3 - No work.
Now that I
have gone to my reward, I have confessions and things I should now say. As it
turns out, I AM the guy who stole the safe from the Motor View Drive Inn back
in June, 1971. I could have left that unsaid, but I wanted to get it off my
chest. Also, I really am NOT a PhD. What happened was that the day I went to
pay off my college student loan at the U of U, the girl working there put my
receipt into the wrong stack, and two weeks later, a PhD diploma came in the
mail. I didn't even graduate, I only had about 3 years of college credit. In
fact, I never did even learn what the letters "PhD" even stood for.
For all of the Electronic Engineers I have worked with, I'm sorry, but you have
to admit my designs always worked very well, and were well engineered, and I
always made you laugh at work. Now to that really mean Park Ranger; after all,
it was me that rolled those rocks into your geyser and ruined it. I did notice
a few years later that you did get Old Faithful working again. To Disneyland -
you can now throw away that "Banned for Life" file you have on me,
I'm not a problem anymore - and SeaWorld San Diego, too, if you read this.
To the
gang: We grew up in the very best time to grow up in the history of America.
The best music, muscle cars, cheap gas, fun kegs, buying a car for "a buck
a year" - before Salt Lake got ruined by over population and Lake Powell
was brand new. TV was boring back then, so we went outside and actually had
lives. We always tried to have as much fun as possible without doing harm to
anybody - we did a good job at that.
If you are
trying to decide if you knew me, this might help… My father was RD
"Dale" Patterson, older brother "Stan" Patterson, and
sister "Bunny" who died in a terrible car wreck when she was a Junior
at Skyline. My mom "Ona" and brother "Don" are still alive
and well. In college I worked at Vaughns Conoco on 45th South and 29th East.
Mary and I are the ones who worked in Saudi Arabia for 8 years when we were
young. Mary Jane is now a Fitness Instructor at Golds on Van Winkle - you might
be one of her students - see what a lucky guy I am? Yeah, no kidding.
My regret
is that I felt invincible when young and smoked cigarettes when I knew they
were bad for me. Now, to make it worse, I have robbed my beloved Mary Jane of a
decade or more of the two of us growing old together and laughing at all the
thousands of simple things that we have come to enjoy and fill our lives with
such happy words and moments. My pain is enormous, but it pales in comparison
to watching my wife feel my pain as she lovingly cares for and comforts me. I
feel such the "thief" now - for stealing so much from her - there is
no pill I can take to erase that pain
If you
knew me or not, dear reader, I am happy you got this far into my letter. I
speak as a person who had a great life to look back on. My family is following
my wishes that I not have a funeral or burial. If you knew me, remember me in
your own way. If you want to live forever, then don't stop breathing, like I
did."
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