9 posts tagged “qotd”

What was the bravest thing you did in 2008?
Submitted by TheFiercestCalm.

Hmm...that would probably be the time I went bungee jumping off the Empire State Building. That was pretty awesome.

Oh wait...did you say the bravest thing I did? I thought you said the bravest thing I didn't...lol.

I'm silly.

'Twas the night before Christmas... How are you spending this Christmas Eve? Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions you're excited about?

Joe and I are in the desert with my family today, and we're going to be doing the following (not necessarily in this order): presents, dinner, Christmas Eve service at Southwest, and going to see Candy Cane Lane and all the wonderful Christmas lights! I might take a nap, too. Anyway, our family's traditions are pretty low-key...basically, we open all of our gifts except the big "Santa" gift which we open on Christmas morning. Our extended family has this duppe gratta tradition, which is this soup-type dish that we all gather around (it's usually in a HUGE pot) and dip bread in together. It's mostly a communal, fellowship thing, but also a tasty tradition. But our immediate family doesn't always do that when we're not with the whole group... Let's see, I can't think of any other defined traditions... But anyway, I'm excited about today. It's Joe's and my first Christmas together (not to mention my first Christmas EVER having a boyfriend!), and I haven't been home to the desert in awhile, so it's nice to be here. Tomorrow morning, after we open our big gifts and pig out on all the candy in our stockings, we'll head up to LA to do Christmas Day with Joe's family, which I'm also very excited about!

Sorry this is kind of a weak post...but come on, it's Christmas! I've got better things to do than sit around on my computer all day...(says the girl who's about to play the dot game on facebook for the next 27 hours.)

Merry Christmas, Wilbur!

So we're heading off to Disneyland soon - HAPPY!

But Ashton isn't coming - SAD.

And now for today's Question of the Day...

What do you love most about your job?

I love that I learn something new almost every day. I love that pretty much everyone I work with is pleasant and fun to be around. I love that, even though I'm in a professional environment, I still feel comfortable being myself -- weirdness and all. And I definitely love that I'm finally making enough money to start paying down my debt and loans, and that I'm insured. I couldn't really tell you which of those things I love MOST...I just have a pretty great job. For now. :-P

If you had to be on a reality television show, which one would you pick?

Haha...I love that this is a QotD question, because my boyfriend HATES reality TV. And I mean, it's understandable. I am in total agreement with him that it's really NOT reality. It's almost always all scripted and planned out, and some of the stuff that happens is just SO not realistic. But nevertheless, I must admit I am easily sucked into reality TV. I've followed whole seasons of American Idol (only one or two), dabbled in Big Brother for a bit, and more recently, I am completely addicted to The Biggest Loser. But, in my defense (or something), The Biggest Loser is different than most reality shows because, while it may very well be totally scripted, the POUNDS these people are shedding week after week is for real. And I just love seeing them gradually transition into more healthy, more attractive, more confident people. Aaaaand I'd be lying if I said I didn't totally get into all the competitive drama, too, even though I KNOW it's all totally instigated by the filmers/producers/whatever.

So anyway, in answer to the actual question of which reality TV show I'd be on if I had to, I wouldn't say Biggest Loser, because that would mean I'd need to lose 100 or more pounds...which I don't. And I wouldn't do American Idol because I have no fanciful notions of being anywhere NEAR good enough (or BAD enough) to even be put on the screen for two seconds. Does Deal or No Deal count as reality TV? I guess it's more of a game show, huh. What about, like, Mythbusters? That would be AWESOME. I don't know what kind of role I could have, but it'd be fun. And if you think Mythbusters doesn't count as reality TV cuz there's no contest or elimination or anything, then my next choice would be...er...let's see......OOH! Bridezillas!

Kidding. I'm not even engaged. And I'd be an amazingly sweet, easy-going bride anyway.

What do you see yourself doing on this day next year?
Submitted by Beautifully Broken. 

Hmm...well, December 4th is a Friday next year. So, if I'm still living and working in Santa Barbara, I'll probably be working, since it's not my off-Friday (did you know I get every other Friday off? It's AWESOME). And then maybe I'll start wrapping Christmas presents, assuming I plan ahead and get all my gifts on Black Friday.

It's also the anniversary of my grandmother's passing (and also her birthday), so I will probably call my daddy and let him know I love him and I'm thinking of him that day. (Note to self: don't forget to do that today!) I was thinking about her this morning, actually, and remembering what I was doing on December 4th, 1997. I was in 6th grade, I think, and I went shopping with my friend Jenny. My grandmother was living with us at the time, as she was suffering from terminal lung cancer and wanted to spend her last days with my dad. I remember coming home after shopping that day (which was her 83rd birthday), probably around 8 p.m. or so, and seeing a gurney (is that what it's called?) being wheeled out my front door. My grandmother had passed away while I was gone, and I felt awful. Anyway, the thing I remember most was that my little sister, who would turn six two days later, said very sweetly and matter-of-factly, "Grandmother went to heaven and now she has a new face!" (My grandmother had a very "droopy" face in her final years, and one of her eyes was especially droopy and watered a lot; I remember she always had a tissue to dry her eye.)

So anyway...I can't believe that was eleven years ago. She would be 94 today.

Well, so much for posting about this day NEXT year...oops. Anyway, I'll try to write a "regular" post later today. Just felt like doing a quick QotD to spice things up a bit.

The Twilight movie comes out today. A lot of people are really excited about seeing Bella and Edward on the big screen. Others couldn't care less. Where do you fall on the issue?

(From livejournal.com's question of the day, because I didn't feel like writing another Christmasy/shopping one.)

Before I start, let me justify two fluffy QotD posts in a row by saying: I'm busy! I'm in a wedding this weekend, so today's post is fluff and short, and tomorrow's and Sunday's, if I can access a computer, will probably be lame too. So sue me!

Okay. Twilight. I really don't care. I mean, I've heard good and bad things about the books, and the only thing I skimmed as far as movie reviews said that it's "meh" -- if you're a fan of the books already, you'll probably like it. But if you're going to see it without having read the books, you'll probably feel just that -- "meh" -- about it. And anyway...if I showed interest in wanting to see it, I think Joe would break up with me.

The end. Happy weekend, everyone!

What gifts, big or small, are you hoping to find under your tree this year?
Sponsored by Best Buy.

Ooh, this'll be a fun one. I decided today's post should be "fluffy" because I've just been writing too much about stressful stuff lately. So what better fluff to write about than Christmas presents!

Disclaimer: I'm gonna list everything I want, dream about having, need or otherwise would like to see under the tree, but it doesn't mean I'm actually expecting to get any or all of this stuff. I'm used to (and quite happy with) getting a small amount of not-too-expensive-or-fancy gifts. Plus, right now I don't exactly have a lot of SPACE for more stuff. So...here we go.

My Santa List:

• iPod nano 16GB - in purple or any color but orange or yellow (it's only $50 more than the 8GB -- and both are less than what I paid for my 4GB 2nd gen).
• Numb3rs Season 3 DVDs - Yes, I have the first two already. I'm a nerd. Heck, get me Season 4 while you're at it.
• Ticket to Ride Europe Edition - SUCH a fun game, AND you can make a train through Bucharest, Romania!
• Rolltop Recipe Box - Or something like it, along with as many fun recipe cards (blank or WITH recipes!) as your little heart desires.
• A Little Dipper Crock Pot - It's just so cute!
• Gift cards of any amount to Target, Old Navy, Ross, Borders, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Trader Joes, Bath & Body Works, or any other place you think I might like...just keep in mind that Santa Barbara is weird and doesn't have stuff like Olive Garden and Panera -- both of which I have gift cards for already and will SOMEDAY use when I go to regular places that don't freak out about "losing their small-town feel"...lol. Oh, and yeah, we don't have Target here, but I will gladly make the trek to Ventura if I have gift cards. :-)
• Logic Problem books - the cheap stuff you can get in grocery stores or other places, like the Dell or Penny Press brand books. Like I said, I'm a nerd!
• Canon PowerShot SD880 - *sigh* I've been dreaming about you, Canon...you're just so sleek, and stylish, and you take such awesome pictures, and you don't run on dumb rechargeable AA batteries that never last more than ten minutes.
• In the category of stocking stuffers...I like Reese's (anything Reese's), York Peppermint Patty, Kit Kat, Skittles, really any candy without nuts or coconut (peanuts are a'ight)...What else do they put in stockings? My mom usually does some fruit to fill up the bottom, and some toothpaste/floss, CDs, or little gadgets...

(Pause: this is getting me really excited about Christmas...not because of presents, but because it's that season! Fun times, hot cocoa, singing carols, eating turkey! Woot.)

Now on to some sillier stuff, but stuff I'd love nonetheless...

• A lifetime supply of pedicures
• To have all my school loans and credit cards paid off (Do I hear $33,000? How about just $30? Bueller?...)
• A trip to any or all of the following destinations: Scotland, New Zealand, Brazil (to see my buddies at the Davis Lar), Romania, New York, Texas (to see my long lost bff Ashton!), France, Spain, Jamaica...basically anywhere in the world, including the US.
• A $x,000 shopping spree to spice up my wardrobe (especially cuz I need more winter clothes!)
• To be on Wheel of Fortune with my momma! Or Deal or No Deal! Or heck, even The Price is Right!
• Cooking lessons from some bigshot like Rachael Ray or something.
• A new car! One that's really fuel efficient, has a CD player and/or some way to hook up my iPod, and is pretty! But I don't really need one right now, cuz my trusty Henry Honda is still running great! Plus I guess I can't really afford car payments...hrm...
• All the seasons of CSI (the Vegas original!) on DVD...I think they have 1 through 8 and 9 is the one currently airing?
• A Disneyland pass! And a HUUUUGE gas station gift card so I can get there a bunch of times.
• Real, awesome cowboy (er, girl) boots that I can line dance in! (Or a gift card to Boot Barn would be even better, so I could pick them out myself.)
• A kilt! I AM Scottish, after all, and finally found out that I'm in the McGregor Clan. So next time I go to a Scottish festival, I'd LOVE to be wearing this!
• (added later:) You Don't Know Jack!! Oh man, I LOVE that game. Haven't played it in years...and it would be so fun to have!
  

Okay, that'll have to do for now. I know I had some more (legitimate) gift ideas written down somewhere, but I can't remember them or find that paper right now. So I may update the list as more things come to mind.

Seriously though, I did this mostly for fun. A LOT of the stuff I listed, I really don't need, or expect to get anytime soon. Except the lifetime supply of pedicures. I definitely will cry if I don't get that...

What's your favorite thing to eat for Sunday breakfast/brunch?

I love breakfast ANY time of day. My all-time favorite place to go out for breakfast food is Danny's Kosher Pickle in Azusa, CA. BEST pancakes of my life. But since I don't live there anymore, now I will settle for IHOP or even Denny's...but my new second-favorite place is Domingo's Cafe in Goleta. Almost the best pancakes. But whatever Domingo's may lack in pancake awesomeness, it makes up for in the fact that I get to go there with Joe. :-)

P.S. Last I've heard on the fire in my neighborhood is that it's about 60% containment. And there's a list of properties lost, which totals about 150, twenty of which are in my immediate neighborhood. So far, praise the Lord, my house has not shown up on that list. I haven't been back to the Santa Barbara area yet since Thursday night, so tonight will be interesting...finding out how soon I can get back in and live there. What my street looks like with several houses obliterated. Smelling the destruction seeping from every corner of my home. I'm not really looking forward to going back to reality.

Tell us how you met your significant other.
Submitted by Luda

Saw the Question of the Day suggestion on Vox's home page and figured since I tell this story about fourteen times a day, I might as well put it in writing. And claim it as NaBloPoMo Day 4, in case I don't get a chance to write anything else today.

This story requires a little bit of background information first, so you don't get too confused. So here we go. First of all, Joe lives in Santa Barbara. Now, prior to meeting each other, Joe and I were already unknowingly associated: he is good friends with my cousin Sarah and her husband Jeff, and having known both of them for over ten years, Joe also knows my uncle Phil and aunt Robyn, Sarah's parents. (Bonus fact: Joe was in Sarah's wedding about four years ago, so we actually crossed paths long before we ever officially met.) Okay, so this past spring, my grandmother was in the hospital in Santa Barbara, under my uncle Phil's care, for some health issues she was going through. My mom really wanted to visit Grandma on Mother's Day, and I offered to go along with her. (At the time, I was living in West Covina.)

A few days before our trip up to Santa Barbara, we found out that my uncle Phil was admitted to the hospital for kidney problems, which was really serious because he had just had both his kidneys removed (less than a year ago) and now had his sister's (my aunt Carol's) second kidney to replace his diseased ones. So for his new kidney to go into possible failure this early on was not good news. Anyway, needless to say, our trip to visit Grandma became a dual-patient visit, and we went to see Phil the same weekend, in the same hospital, on the same floor as my grandma. (Oh, and another bonus fact: Grandma didn't know at that time that Uncle Phil was in the hospital, so we had to be kinda sneaky with our visits and our conversations -- we didn't want to stress Grandma out!)

So that weekend, Mom and I stayed in a hotel halfway between Santa Barbara and Van Nuys, because my cousin Sarah (Phil's daughter and Joe's friend) was going to have her baby dedicated in church on Mother's Day, and Mom wanted to be there for that as well as to visit Grandma and Uncle Phil. We actually visited both of them on Saturday evening first, then went back to the hotel. Sunday morning we drove down to Van Nuys and attended the baby dedication, then immediately hopped in the car to drive back up to Santa Barbara. (Bonus fact #3: Joe was at the dedication, too...but we still didn't meet yet!)

Okay, NOW for the good stuff. Mom and I walk into Uncle Phil's hospital room that Mother's Day afternoon, and there's some guy I've never seen before (except that I totally HAD -- at Sarah's wedding AND that morning at the dedication) in my uncle's room with him, as well as my aunt Robyn. Phil introduces us all, and upon shaking Joe's hand, I can immediately sense that he's a little attracted to me. (And that feels really good, and is a rare thing for me to actually pick up on...) So we're talking a little small-talk, about where I went to school, where he went to school, and that sort of thing. And not five minutes into our conversation, this little exchange goes down, which I will never forget:

Joe: You went to APU? What was your major?
Tabitha: English.
Joe: Are you married?
Tabitha: Uh...no. I'm not married.
Joe: Um, oh, yeah, I mean...I've heard the joke around APU is that whole "ring by spring" deal, so just thought I'd ask.
Tabitha: (*thinking, Nice save, buddy.*) Heh...yeah, I've seen it happen. But it didn't happen for me.

Oh man. You don't even know how funny that was to me. I just loved knowing that Joe was totally into me after just a few minutes of talking, and that he got right to the point and made sure I wasn't taken.

The whole time talking to Joe, I was very careful not to say anything flirty or even too nice, because I was pretty dead set on NOT getting into any relationships at that time and didn't want to lead him on. So I think I was distracted by my own protective wall that I didn't really allow myself to consider Joe in any romantic fashion. I treated it like a casual, completely platonic conversation, with the knowledge in the back of my head that HE was thinking a little more than that... Anyway, we talked for just a few more minutes, and then Mom and I had to head out. So we said goodbye, nice to meet you, yada yada, and we left. And my mom and I weren't thirty feet down the hall before I said, "I think he's in love with me." Of course I was mostly joking, and definitely exaggerating, but I could tell he might be interested, and my first thought was, Crap! I'm not looking for a relationship right now! Why does this ALWAYS happen to me?

I tried to put Joe out of my mind, but somehow I knew I would hear from him again. And lo and behold, Sarah told me just a day or two later that she had talked with Joe and he asked her if he could have my number or email so we could talk some more. I thought about just saying no, but I didn't want to be rude, and I also thought, Well, it couldn't hurt to talk to him a little, and just be very honest about where I stand so I don't lead him on... Heh. Newsflash! You talk to a guy, he's into you, and it doesn't matter how clearly you say, "I'm not looking for anything." If you're talking to him, he thinks there is a chance. And lucky for Joe (and really, lucky for me), he was right.

We started talking online pretty much every day, for hours on end, and I really enjoyed getting to know him. I was completely up front with him, saying that I didn't want him to get the wrong impression and I couldn't promise anything more than just friendship. He was very patient with me. But as our conversations continued and he knew that we both knew we were "clicking," he boldly asked me if I still felt like there would only ever be friendship between us. And I was stubborn. For about five minutes. I tried to stick to my guns, tell him I really, really didn't want to start anything right now, and he just said, "Okay, but my question is, are you completely sure that there could NEVER be anything romantic between us? Because honestly, I don't need another 'just friend'." Ouch. I had to make a choice: keep sticking to my stupid guns even though I was thoroughly enjoying talking to this guy, or give him a chance. Or rather, let him know that I might someday consider giving him a chance. That's more or less what I said, because I couldn't just throw down my guns all at once, ya know?

Rrrrright. Man, thinking back on this now and putting it in writing is making me realize how ridiculous I was, and also how persistent Joe had to be to break down my silly stubbornness. So anyway, we had talked a bunch about going swing dancing, and he asked if I'd be willing to go with him one weekend. He would drive down from Santa Barbara to the LA area where I lived, pick me up, take me to dinner and then dancing. I agreed, but I couldn't just cave in (even mentally) and concede that it was a "date." So I asked if I could bring my roommate and her boyfriend along. She really did want to go swing dancing! And Joe, being his ever-patient and also ever-straightforward self, said, "You do realize this is a date, right?" Basically his way of saying, "Don't be stupid, stupid. I want to take you out, and I want it to be just the two of us."

And here comes my lowest point in this pre-dating saga. I almost got out of the whole date altogether, ON THE DAY OF THE DATE. I told Joe I was really sore because I had just joined 24 Hour Fitness, with a personal trainer, and he was really working me hard. In my defense, it was totally true. My neck was sore, my legs and arms were cramped, and the thought of dancing -- especially swing dancing, which I hadn't really tried before -- was not very appealing to me that day. But Joe was still persistent (thank goodness!) and said, "Well, I can just take you out to dinner and we'll go from there, see how you feel." And alas...he finally wore me down. And I started pounding some extra strength Tylenol so I could get through the evening (dancing or not) without hobbling around like a freak of nature...or more accurately, a big fat wuss who was already feeling like death after just one or two training sessions.

To get this story wrapped up before I go on for another thousand pages, I'll just tell you that the first date was awesome. We did end up going dancing, but lucky for me, I showed a little persistency of my own and persuaded Joe to take me line dancing at my favorite place instead. And after that night, he had pretty much worn me down to the point that "just friendship" was a distant memory, and I wanted to see him again. As soon as possible. So we went out again two days later, to a Scottish festival. Joe picked me up...wearing a kilt...AND we spent the entire day with his parents, his brother John, and John's girlfriend Kelly.

Second date, people! My second date with Joe was ALSO with his entire family. And it was only two days after our FIRST date. I'd say Joe is one smoooooooth guy, wouldn't you? Needless to say, we hit it off. We started dating, got serious, I went to Romania, came home and interviewed for a job in Santa Barbara, moved a couple weeks later, and here I am today, Mrs. Joe...okay, that last part isn't true. Yet. But while I've known him for just under six months, and we've been dating "officially" for just under five, I can tell you with confidence and gladness that I am in love with him. Totally, helplessly, painfully and ecstatically in love with him. And judging from Joe's success in the face of my obstinacy from day one, I'd say it's only a matter of time. (Now it's my turn to be patient...)

And that is how I met Joe.