I are artsy

So my little sister is having her 18th birthday on the 30th and I had no idea what to get her. I didn't want to just buy a gift card to some lame store like Forever 21 or something so I tried hard to think of a sweet A present. I couldn't think of anything cool (other than a bonsai tree), so I decided to make her something.

This is my attempt at making a present/creating artwork.
Behold.

I call it "The R.L.s 1".









I realized again how much I love art.
I think I will do it more often.

I feel dirty inside...

So working at a restaurant often allows one to meet people they otherwise would not have met and have experiences they otherwise would not have had.

This past week at Sabor was one of those times.

Thursday night, there was a table in the restaurant of 6 ladies celebrating a birthday and getting drunk off their A's. I wasn't their server, but as they left I noticed one of the ladies still had on one of our sombreros. They aren't cheap (something like $150 a piece) so I tried to stop them, but they ran out with the hat in a drunken jog/sway laughing. I wasn't about to chase them, so I told my manager and he ran out to talk to them, but they were already in their cars and peeling away from the restaurant.

I chuckled a little to myself and shook my head. That was the last of that sombrero...or so I thought.

About a half hour later, the drunkest girl out of the bunch walked in with the sombrero. I happened to be near the front door and she walked over to me and said she had caught the culprit who stole the hat and she went on to say she was sorry about 7 times. She handed me the hat and went in for a hug. I was caught off gaurd, so I just kind of went with it.

Next thing I know, she is whispering some crap in my ear as she grabs my butt. Then she had the audacity to kiss me on the cheek. She walked away with a smile while she said thank you.

I couldn't quite believe what had happened. I just stood there as she walked out the door and  left me shocked and more than a little bit disturbed. I had just been kissed by a drunk girl and been taken advantage of at the same time and it didn't feel very good.

I'm trying to laugh about it now, but I just feel so dirty inside...

4x4, a face full of snow, and a Christmas miracle.

I had an experience and I feel the need to write it down. This is my method.

I went to Park City this weekend to party with a good group of friends and while I was down there I decided to visit my dear friend Nat in Midway. It was my first time in the beautiful city and I had a very enjoyable time. While I was indoors tho, it happened to snow a good 8 inches. I left Nat's house at about 1 in the am and headed back up to Park City to party. It was great fun to drive on roads full of snow and unmolested by other less worthy vehicles and drivers. I had a great time sliding around in the snow, fish-tailing, and doing donuts.


Eventually, the fun started to wear off and I realized what kind of situation I was really in. I was in an area I had never been in before, late at night, and in the middle of a pretty heavy snow storm/blizzard. I didn't really let it get to me, but in the back of my head doubt and concern of my safety were beginning to sound.

I got on the highway back to Park City and that's when the real blizzard hit. I wasn't able to see the road because no one had driven on the roads in awhile and so my focus wasn't to stay in between the lines, but rather to stay on the road at all. That usually isn't too hard, but due to the blizzard I was struggling to be able to see the markers that boarder the highway on both sides. With all that said, no real panic set in until I passed an exit sign that was completely covered in snow and I realized I might not be able to recognize my exit when in came. I thought up scenarios of driving aimlessly for hours in the storm, losing control, sliding off the road and freezing to death somewhere north of Midway. I passed a few more illegible signs and I decided that rather than panic I needed to pray.

I quietly said a prayer to myself that I could have the Spirit with me to find my exit. Not even kidding, the next sign I saw had no snow on it, was completely legible and said "Park City Next Exit 1 Mile". It was a tho someone had wiped just that one sign clean. I soon found the exit and in no time I was back at the mansion called a cabin in Park City. Prayer is real. God is real. He cares for us and will bless us if we are willing to ask and to show forth a little faith. Thank you Heavenly Father for the many blessings you have bestowed upon me, my family, and my friends.

I'm a sucker for a good Christmas miracle.

Realptimistic

Optimism. Would you consider it a good thing?
You prob do. And for the most part I would agree with you.
But the real question is, can optimism be a bad thing?
In some instances, I believe this to be true.

What good is optimism if it makes you miss or avoid reality and in turn creates more problems and issues. Looking at and dealing with reality allows us to more accurately asses a situation and act accordingly. If you are "optimistic" by pretending that the situation is better than it really is, then chances are you will only make more mistakes and make the situation worse.

That's exactly why we are in our current economic situation, everyone was overly-optimistic. No one prepared for or imagined that tough times could be ahead, everyone assumed that the good times would continue to roll when all the signs were saying that the growth and economic situation were unrealistic and bound to change in the near future. But "optimism" kept us from seeing the truth, it shaded our eyes and now we've fallen into a deep hole.

It's also the reason I believe the recession is far from over, all these stimulus packages have done nothing but postpone the innevitable. We made some mistakes in the past, we went to far in debt and the recession is the consequence. By going through all these measures to soften the blow we have only postponed our consequences, not avoided them all together. Bad decisions bring bad consequences, that's just how life is.

Don't think that I'm a pessimist from these comments, cause I most certainly am not. I hope to make the best of the future, but I don't think we can do that if we are misleading ourselves today by being overly-optimistic. By being realistic today, i can truly be optimistic about the future, it won't necessarily cause me to be over-optimistic.

We need to optimistic, but we also need to be realistic in order to change and improve.
Just don't be stupid and live in a world that doesn't exist. Instead create a better world by living in the real world.

If I could sum it up in two words, I would choose optimistic and realistic. Put them together and you get...realptimistic.

Ya.