The weekend

I dropped Jeff off at the airport a couple of hours ago. He flew in on Friday night and was able to stay until this afternoon. It was good to have him in our house again. I realized this weekend how much we balance each other out. I tend to stress out about the abstract big picture things, worrying about each individual decision and the effect it will or will not have on our life 10 years from now. Jeff, on the other hand, doesn't stress out about that. Eternally optimistic, he seems to have this deep sense that everything will work out for the best because it always has and always will. On the other hand, I don't stress out about moment to moment situations and/or catastrophes. For example, if I lock myself out of the house, or spill milk ALL OVER the kitchen, or burn toast, or ram my shoulder into the doorway, or stub my toe- it usually results in laughing at the situation. The opposite is true for Jeff; nothing can put him into a tail spin faster than misplaced keys, bad drivers, computers messing up, or getting locked out of the house. The result is that in almost every potentially frustrating situation, one of us is laughing and the other is swearing. Luckily, this weekend was free from any of that though. I spoke too soon. I was writing the entry at the same time Jeff got to Vegas. He had stopped to get gas and while cleaning out some trash from his car accidentally threw away his cell phone. He had to then explain to the non-English speaking lady behind the counter what happened so that she could open up the trash can for him to dig out his phone. After finally finding it he went and washed his hands "20 times" and then cleaned off his phone that had been "goobered" on. Needless to say, while he was telling me the story I was cracking up—enough that he finally started to laugh as well.

I was determined to take some pictures this weekend, but didn't. My camera keeps dying on me. After taking just a couple of pictures it starts threatening to shut down and the picture viewer on the back is TINY. But I think we have enough Thank You Network points built up that I can get a pretty good camera without having to spend real money on it.*

This morning I finished Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight. I recommend it. She definitely had a different childhood than most people I know.

I started Blood Orange this afternoon. I am only about 50 pages into it but it is okay so far. I have a difficult time switching from a memoir to a novel and back again because memoirs "cut to the chase" (sorry, a cliché but I can't think of how else to describe what I mean). I get bored and distracted if an author spends a paragraph on the way the light filters through the trees and the way the air smells and the sounds, etc. before actually getting to the point of the story. If you have ever read or started to read, A Walk to Remember, by Nicholas Sparks, then you know what I mean. I become very impatient when an author throws a character in the story that is full of mystery or whatever and you just have to keep reading to figure out who they are and why they are there. So anyway, that's why I like memoirs because usually as a character enters a story a brief background is given as to who they are, why they are in the story, etc. Long story short: Blood Orange is probably better than I am giving it credit for; my brain just hasn't fully switched into novel mode yet.

*We are competitive with each other about silly things. For example, one week we were really late getting to church, and for once it was not my fault. Actually, since I have short hair it is rarely my fault anymore. Anyway, we got to church 20 minutes late which is really embarrassing because there are all these families sitting quietly with 7 kids all lined up in a row who managed to make it on-time and we have no excuse- it's just the 2 of us. So we sat next to who I soon learned was the Relief Society President's family. I realized how late it was when I looked up at the clock in the chapel and the hour hand was pointed to 10 and the minute hand was pointed to 12. (Our church starts at 9:40 am). So I leaned over and said something about that to Jeff. He retorted something along the lines of it only being 9:50 not 10. Something worthy of note is that Jeff's eyesight is almost as bad as mine and yet he refuses to wear any type of contacts or glasses. So very maturely I bet him $50 that it was 10 not 9:50. He agreed on the bet and so I leaned over and asked the teenage girl next to me what time it was. Understanding the seriousness of the situation, she stared at the clock for a few seconds and said that it was 10. So I won. A new pair of jeans and bragging rights securely in place- which really mean more than the pair of jeans I was able to buy without ever having to hear about it from him.** Besides the bet, "$5 if you name the movie this sappy chic song (unchained melody) is from," on the way to the airport this afternoon, which he correctly answered, "Ghost," our most recent bet was that he would lose 15 lbs by the time I move to Utah. If he loses 15 lbs he gets to buy a new pair of shoes and if he doesn't lose 15 lbs then I get a new camera. We prematurely agreed today that I can go ahead and order the camera. I am very excited.

**Jeff swears that he never comments about the amount of clothes I have so to be fair I am noting it here.