I know you are thinking, "Christmas is over!" Tell that to Mother Nature. It snowed a lot last night, and it has been snowing again today. Besides, the title is appropriate for blogging about Christmas, which I was going to do last time, but we had company.
Anyway, I woke up around 8:00 AM on Christmas and nudged Sean awake. After I woke Mike up, we opened the presents under our tree. Sean bought me an iTunes gift card, Up In The Air on blu-ray, a Nintendo Wii, an extra Wii Remote and Nunchuk, and two games: Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Bros. We set up the new system and washed the dishes (because who wants to leave dirty dishes in the sink on a holiday?) before going to my parents' house at 11:00 AM.
We ate a yummy brunch and then opened more presents. My grandma gave me various knickknacks, my stepmom and dad bought me a Walmart gift card, and my sister bought me Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Tooth Fairy on blu-ray (it was a two-disc set...). We then played a quick board game before going to Sean's parents' house around 2:00 PM, where we opened even more presents (Sean's dad gave me Telestrations, and his parents bought me a nice watch and a bottle of wine).
After eating lunch, we exchanged white elephant gifts (I ended up with the present I bought, a rip off bikini, which I gave to Sean). We then played Scene It? Star Trek, as well as Telestrations, which ended up being funnier than I expected. Around 7:00 PM, we went home. Sean played with his new camera, and I played the Wii.
Christmas didn't end there, though. A few days later, I bought myself a Nintendo DS Lite, a DS Lite Zip Case, and four games: Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, and New Super Mario Bros. Sean bought himself gifts, too.
It was, among many feelings, sad Mom wasn't here to celebrate with us, but all in all, it was a good Christmas.
During the past two weeks, I worked more than 120 hours, so I'm sure you can understand why I didn't post earlier. The extra money will certainly be nice -- it's paying for a trip to D.C. in October, which I'll talk about later -- but I had to take two (paid) days off this week to make up for the weekend I missed last week. Instead of doing homeworking like I planned, though, I've been playing Sims 3. I have tomorrow...
I haven't heard anything about the job I applied for two weeks ago. I'm pretty sure, though, that the hiring manager will begin interviewing this week. *crosses fingers* I really hope I get it, and if what I've heard (that I'm the top candidate) is any indication, I'm pretty sure I will. Oh, in my last entry, I told you I bought a suit to prepare for my interview. Here are two pictures of it:
To further prepare for the interview, I made an appointment at the Sanctuary Day Spa & Salon for a haircut and manicure tomorrow morning. The package I booked also includes a deep tissue massage, which will be nice. I've never treated myself to something like this before, so I'm really excited.
I received a letter from Big Brothers Big Sisters a few days after my last post. It took longer than expected, but I was finally accepted into the program! The process of finding a Little for me will no doubt be quite long, but I'm excited. I hope I'm matched with someone before the end of summer - Lagoon isn't open all year!
I also talked about Dr. Bentley's Pops Concert in my last entry. The songs we as alumni sang were recorded and posted on Facebook. I don't think you need to be a member of the group or Facebook to view them, so check them out: Defying Gravity and For Good.
Mistaken - I'm sad to see you deleted your Facebook account. My schedule is wide open for your visit next week, so give me a call and we'll get together: (801)867-1322. It'll be nice to see you again! As for what I like and dislike about Sims 3...
Likes:
Being able to walk seamlessly around town is awesome! You can visit neighbors and commercial lots without load screens, allowing you to fully immerse yourself into the neighborhood.
The addition of traits, such as "Family Oriented," "Good" (and its counterpart, "Evil"), and "Workaholic," allows you to customize your Sims' personalities, far above what you were able to do in Sims and Sims 2.
The "moodlets" are pretty cool. They can positively and/or negatively affect your mood, and they can be obtained by certain events, such as moving into a new home (a mood booster) or getting burglarized (a mood buster).
The stories of your neighbors continue to progress. They age, have children, quit their jobs and find new ones, and move out of town. It balances out the neighborhood. If you don't want the stories to progress, you can turn it (and aging) off, which is another plus.
Dislikes:
Weather, which was added to Sims 2 via the Seasons expansion pack, is nowhere to be found. Weather should be a standard feature, but I'm pretty sure it will be added again in a future expansion pack.
Apartments, which were added to Sims 2 via the Apartment Life expansion pack, have been removed, too. Like the weather, I'm sure these will come back at some point.
Where are the pets?! Another expansion pack, I'm sure.
EA is really trying to milk as much money as they can from consumers this time. In addition to the inevitable expansion packs mentioned above, they have a store, which I haven't been able to download items from, with tons of objects and other items you can buy with SimPoints. How do you get SimPoints? Well, other than the 1,000 SimPoints you are given for registering your game, you have to spend real money to get them.
I'm sure there are other likes and dislikes, but those are the only ones I can think of at the moment.
As mentioned at the beginning of this entry, I'm going to Washington, D.C. this October. We're staying for four days, and we'll be attending the National Equality March at the Mall. Our flight is booked, and we have a room reserved at the JW Marriott Hotel Washington, DC, which is located steps away from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. I'm so excited! It'll be my first time in the Nation's capital.
Well, that's about it for now. Thanks for reading!
So, yeah...way past my once-a-week post! Sorry. Honestly, I haven't been motivated to do much lately. I am supposed to be writing an essay comparing and contrasting three paintings for school (anyone want to "help"?), but instead, I'm updating the blog I've neglected for the past two weeks. Now that we know where my priorities lie...
Okay, what's happened since I last posted? My oldest nephew, Tyler, had his missionary farewell a week ago yesterday, and left on...Wednesday, I believe. Even though I no longer consider myself Mormon, I'm sure he will be an excellent representative of the Church. I can't believe how fast time flies, though! It seems like just yesterday my brother, James, and I were babysitting him and his brother, Dallin.
A week ago today was Dr. Bentley's final choir concert, as mentioned in my last entry. It was definitely bittersweet singing the alumni songs ("Defying Gravity" and "For Good" from the musical Wicked) we prepared and watching Dr. Bentley and his wife, Becky, ball their eyes out. It was very powerful. I have to admit that I cried, and honestly, blogging about this is bringing up a lot of emotions, too (I take after my mom and sisters). Five others from my year were there, and I wish more had participated. It was good to see them again, even though most of them rarely talk to me anymore. I hope we have a reunion sometime this summer, but I doubt we will, unfortunately.
Okay, what's next? Oh, the position I mentioned in this entry opened up last week. Obviously, I applied. I bought a very nice suit on Saturday, and I've been practicing interviewing with my manager for the past several months, so I'm sure I will do fine. The posting doesn't close until June 11, so it will be awhile before I hear anything, but I'm excited. I've heard from a few sources that I'm the top candidate, so wish me luck. It wouldn't be a huge pay increase, but I'm not disappointed. I'm just looking forward to more responsibility and visibility. I will keep you updated, of course.
I ordered Sims 3 from Amazon.com awhile ago and received it on Friday. Needless to say, I've been spending much of my time playing it, making it difficult to finish my homework. It's pretty fun, and since I'm not sure how many of you actually play the Sims series, I won't go into much detail about what I like and don't like about this new version. I asked Sean to hide it for me so I would write my paper tonight, but we can see how well that's working...
In addition to buying a suit on Saturday, Sean and I checked in to the Salt Lake City Center Marriott for the evening. It was Pride this weekend, and we always enjoy staying downtown for the festivities. Last year, we stayed at the Hotel Monaco. Both hotels are very nice and I recommend them to anyone visiting Salt Lake. Anyway, Paula Poundstone performed Saturday night. She was pretty funny, and we watched her until it started raining. On Sunday morning, we woke up to more fun, but we didn't let that stop us from enjoying the parade. We did, however, go home afterward instead of going to festival, which is kind of disappointing. I hope next year will be more dry.
Although I'd love to update you on Big Brothers Big Sisters, not much has happened. I've called the woman who interviewed me several times, but I always get her voicemail and she never calls me back. Someone else, however, finally got around to contacting another one of my references, Sean's mom, Julianne. I'm sure it will be another two weeks before they call the rest of my contacts, Sean and my boss, Jeff.
That pretty much brings us to today. I've had the Manhattan Clique remix of Katy Perry's "Waking Up In Vegas" stuck in my head. I swear I've played it at least fifty times today, and no, I'm not exaggerating. It's the only way I know how to get songs out of my head. I wish I could buy it, but I've only been able to find the song on YouTube, which I've included for your listening pleasure.
Well, I think it's time to go to bed. Wish me luck on writing the essay I keep putting off, and I hope to post again next week. Be like Mistaken and remind me to update this blog if I..."forget" to. It helps to know that people actually read it! Now I need to pester Sean into posting again...
Goodnight!
EDIT: I was able to find "Defying Gravity" on YouTube, but I couldn't find a good version of "For Good":
Believe it, folks. I'm planning on proving you all (James) wrong; I'm going to post at least once a week. Of course, I should be doing homework instead of blogging or playing Civony (I'm addicted; if you enjoy MMORPGs and games like Age of Empires and Civilization, you might like it).
Well, I guess there isn't really a point to this (short) entry, other than to meet my post quota for the week. ;-p It fits The Last Word thread theme, though - random, relatively pointless conversations where friendships are developed. This blog is just a more personal extension of that.
Anyway, I better go since I didn't get much sleep last night...who am I kidding? I'm going to stay up and play Civony...just a few more minutes, I promise...
