Today is the last day of my vacation and there's about 10 things I want to do. However, it's already noon and the only thing I've accomplished is running a virus protector on my computer. It's taking forever because I have to manually tell it what I don't want, and apparently I have like 2,000 threats or something because OMG, just hurry it up already!

So, I've decided to join Jenny Craig. I've been thinking about it for a while and I went in Monday to find out more about it. Typical me, I cried when I was talking to one of the counselors, mostly because my mom really pissed me off earlier in the day. My mom is awesome 90% of the time, but she's never struggled with her weight and doesn't exactly know how to deal with me being the fat one in the family. And I know it was hard for her to see me being all kinds of fat while I was in Utah. They weighed me at Jenny Craig, and I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm the fattest I've ever been. And I don't even know why...it's not like I'm eating more than ever. I figure it's because I'm getting older and because I need to start taking ALL my pills. So...I'm going to get my pills, I'm going to join Jenny Craig, I'm going to start working out again...and if these things don't work, perhaps I will just give up. That would be exciting and liberating and terribly unhealthy. And I'm rambling.

So, I never talked much about my trip. Here's a few highlights:
- As usual, I am completely fascinated by Mormons. They are so interesting to me, and I still want to find out more about them. They're nice people, I know this. But what I find intriguing is how young they are when they start having babies. A lot of the younger girls I see are pushing around strollers with a young baby, have a toddler walking around, and sometimes are also visibly pregnant. And they look so young! Now, Richfield, Utah is a nice town and everything, but don't these girls want to get out and experience life a little before they start settling down and making as many babies as possible? I am probably offending about a million people here, but I just don't get it. Why all the baby-making as soon as possible?
- My mom and I went to see Wall*E. I loved it. Aside from all the screaming babies in the theater.
- I met my mom's new dog, Lion. He was a stray that apparently cased out the house for a couple of days before making his move. The funny thing about him is that he mimics everything Tonto, who was also a stray, does. If Tonto stretches, Lion stretches. If Tonto barks at a passing car, so does Lion, even if he doesn't really know why he's doing that. He's kind of like an alien pretending to be a dog. He's cute as a button, but we didn't really bond as much as I wanted to. I think most of that was because Tonto is in love with me and does not want to share.
- I played a lot of Sudoku. I couldn't figure it out at all at first, but I did eventually. I can't complete a Medium, though, so I'll have to keep practicing.
- Going back home, my plane was delayed an hour and a half because they had to change 2 tires. That was good times. And then when we finally landed in Dallas, my BFF was waiting for me by the baggage claim! I mean, how cool is that? I can't say anyone has ever done that for me before. She's the best BFF there is.
- My mom made cream chicken and mashed potatoes for me. This is my favorite meal. And it's the best ever.
- I miss my mommy.
- That is probably all at this time.

Urgh, viruses can suck it.

I posted this over in ADIML and thought perhaps some of y'all would be interested in taking a look. I will give you a real entry about fun vacation happenings tomorrow, because for serious, this took me all night and I've about had it.

*****

Hiya. Liz, 28, from Dallas, TX. First timer here! This is my July 4, 2008, in which I am on vacation in Richfield, Utah, visiting my mom and step dad. If you like clouds, dogs, and mountains, you'll love these pics!



59 pictures, including non-repeating teaser. Also, I am always in the mood for new friends.

( I like mountains! )

Stolen from everyone, pretty much.

1. Name: Elizabeth, but mostly everyone calls me Liz.

2. Age: 28. Birthday is in October.

3. Location: Dallas, TX.

4. Occupation: I do closed captioning for the hearing impaired. I really do enjoy it even if I have to do at least 10 hours of overtime per paycheck to have any decent money. To give you an example of what I work on, yesterday I did a show called American Latino, and then followed that up with a terrible Hallmark movie called Pandemic. Having Tiffani Amber Theissan play a doctor is like having Marky Mark play a teacher.

5. Partner: Josh. We've been together since December 2005. We don't live together for a few reasons. One, he lives with his parents, and they're a little older and kind of need the extra assistance. Also, he does not have a job, nor has he had a job since we've gotten together. I am, in fact, his sugar mama. These things will have to change if we are ever going to live together. I don't know if they will. So, there's that.

But despite all that, he is lovely. He is an awesome cook and makes the best guacamole that exists. He's very affectionate. He has 2 doggies that I love with all my heart. He also has this incredible thirst for knowledge that I admire. He'll watch a documentary about anything, from the habits of beavers to what goes into making wicker. Seriously. He's into everything sci-fi and has every episode of Star Trek, Farscape, and BSG. Also, he's hot and the sex0rs is awesome.

6. Kids: None. None planned. I do want one or two in the future, like...before I'm 35. But not anytime soon.

7. Brothers/Sisters: I have a brother, Robert. He's 34 and has a 20 year old boyfriend who is adorable. They have 2 dogs, a golden retriever and a boxer. The boxer is a puppy and she wears a pearl necklace. Like, literally. They live in Austin. I love Austin but it's not somewhere I'd want to live. I did live there for a year and it just didn't work out. The traffic makes me want to scream.

8. Pets: This could take a while. I don't have any that live with me in my little apartment because I go to Josh's a couple of times a week and it just wouldn't work out. Plus I don't have a yard. But everyone in my family has 2 dogs each. I already mentioned my brother. My dad has the cutest golden retriever ever, Alf, and a pit bull-bird dog mix named Allie. My mom has a black lab named Tonto and a golden-something mix named Lion. I've never met Lion but I will get to next week! Whee. Josh has 2 Boston Terriers, Iris and Lily. I lub them.

9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:
1) I'm going on vacation to Utah, where my mom lives, on Monday. I'm taking the most vacation days I ever have, which I'm excited about, because I need it. I love my co-workers but I need to get out of here and be away from them for a while. Also, Utah! I loovvvee mountains.

2) I need to lose weight. So very, very much. When I get back from vacation and have that sense of dread because there's no more vacations for a while, I'm going to use that energy on figuring out a plan on how to do this. I've been overweight for 10 years now and it has to stop.

3) I'm taking an online writing class. I'm way behind on the lessons but what I've done so far has really put a clear picture in my head of the novel I want to write. The major problem with the novel is that for some reason, I visualize it in India. The name of it is Remember India, for crying out loud. It's just that I know nothing about India. Nothing. At all. I will have to research a lot but I think it'll be interesting and intriguing.

4. After seeing the Notebook, for some reason I got it in my head that I need to write smutty CSI fanfic about Warrick/Sara. This disturbs me as the majority of my fanfic is Grissom/Sara. But it involves a piano and Warrick plays, so...there ya go.

10. What did you go to school for? Journalism, with a focus on news-editorial. College wasn't really all that great for me. I should have gone to the school I was first accepted to, The College of Santa Fe. But that's a whole different entry entirely.

11. Parents: They got divorced when I was 14. My dad lives in Dallas and dates women who are way too young for him. I think the cut off age is 40, and they all have to be batshit crazy. My mom lives in Richfield, Utah with my stepdad. They moved there a few years after they got married since that's where he's from. He used to be Mormon, he isn't anymore. Every time I go to Utah, I have to say that I am quite fascinated by the Mormons. They intrigue me. But I digress.

12. Who are some of your closest friends? My BFF Alison was out of the picture for a few years but recently moved back from Colorado. We've been BFF off and on since we were 12 years old. Her birthday is literally the day before mine. We've had our dramas, A LOT of dramas, but I think we're in a really stable, drama-free friendship at the moment.

I also have a co-worker friend who I am becoming closer to as the days go by. We make the time go by at work by sending probably close to 50 emails a day. But she has like 10,000 friends and I am never for sure if I am just one of the 10,000 or someone she is closer to than that. Time will tell.

That is all. Carry on.

First, a question. I created a community for Ghost Whisperer fanfic. I've never created a community before and therefore have no idea what I'm doing. How do I go in and change the layout and all that other stuff before I post anything and try to attract any attention to it? I am dumb when it comes to LJ, I will just go ahead and admit that.

Anyway...( Austin, creepy cousins, puppies! )

I haven't exactly been tagged for this, but I've seen it everywhere and by jenbachand ordered those of us who haven't done it yet to do it. So yeah. Here it is.

Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 random things, facts, goals, or habits about yourself. At the end, choose anyone you think may answer - to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. You can't tag a person who has tagged you.

1. I am so excited to post my geekfiction ficathon story tomorrow. I want to post it NOW! But I won't. But I want to. I think it's good, and I really want lots of feedback because pretty much, I'm a feedback whore. But it's a good story and you should read it. My beta really liked it. She described it as "orgasmic", which is hardcore seeing that it's not smut at all! I will be shutting up now.

2. I love Dr. Pepper. I try not to drink it more than once a day, but I usually fail at this.

3. I love working out, and somehow I've fallen off the bandwagon lately and I haven't worked out in weeks. This is making me sad. I know once I get there it'll be easy to get back into it, but I just can't make myself leave my apartment! Grrr.

4. I pretty much like dogs more than humans.

5. I do not enjoy sunny days. I would much rather have an overcast over sun any day of the week.

6. I talk to my mom every day, sometimes twice a day. She moved to Utah last year and I thought this would make me a lot sadder than I am, but I'm doing okay because we talk so much. She's coming to visit me next week, so I am quite looking forward to that.

7. I think my hair is falling out one strand at a time. I'm shedding. And I don't like it.

8. I mostly wear black, especially when I am feeling particularly overweight. Today I'm wearing a pink shirt, but really only because I've worn so much black this week.

9. My co-worker just thought a "wheelbarrow" was really called a "wheelbarrel." This made me laugh. It made me laugh more when I looked it up and found it on Urban Dictionary as a very dirty sexual position.

10. I feel like I'm a lot older than I should be. I'm 28, but I really do not feel like I should be that old. I'm definitely more like 23 or 24. But time seems to disagree with me.

11. I just wanted to add one more...I do closed captioning for the hearing impaired, just to let all my new friends know. We've worked on different incarnations of Family Feud ever since I started working here. Richard Dawson was...bearable, charistmatic, but mumbly and maybe a little drunk. Richard Karn, oh, don't even get me started on him. Zero charisma, outright creepy, just plain intolerable. And now we have just started on the John O'Hurley era, and I have to say this: I love him. I might have a small crush on him. He is AMAZING. So charismatic and funny and the perfect host for a show like this. I just thought everyone should be aware of this important situation.

I don't do tagging, so do it if you want :)

Stuff:

- My stepdad apparently had a stroke today. I found this out when I called my mom and I was like "blah blah blah, my life sucks, I'm sick, boohoo," and she's all, "Well, I had a pretty bad day, too." Yeah, I'm an asshole.

It appears that he's okay. He's in his seventies but takes really, really good care of himself, so it probably could have been worse. It's just...yurgh.

- I'm sick. It sucks.

- My boyfriend is a jackass. And sometimes he's not, which makes it confusing. If he wants to break up, I wish he'd just have the balls to say, "Let's break up. For real this time." But...that's another entry entirely.

- I may have a crush on Dolph Lundgren. Yeah, I know.

Finally...
( OMG CSI, why?! )

For the past 5 or 6 years, I've gone to my mom's house for Halloween. We watch stuff like Dracula or Interview with a Vampire (last year we watched House because I was 9 kinds of obsessed with it at the time) and order pizza and talk about the fun kiddie costumes.

My mom moved to Utah at the beginning of the summer and right now I really don't care about the holiday in general. I'm sad my mommy's gone and I don't particularly give a crap about Halloween in the first place. So you know what I'm going to do? My So Called Life comes out on DVD next Tuesday, and I'm going to stay home and watch that ALL NIGHT LONG.

Extra bonus: I did the captions for a couple of the episodes for this DVD. It was really quite a satisfying experience, and I'm definitely going to watch them with the captions on so I can say, "Ha! THOSE ARE MINE! I DID THAT!!" Because I am such a godawful dork.

And yes, I will probably watch the Halloween episodes, one of my least favorites, for shits and giggles.

Also: I swear I will stop posting entries whenever the urge hits me at some point. I just kind of love LJ right now. It's all shiny and icon-y and easy to use and I just want to lick it!

Random: I did a motivator for the first time on TwOP, and people actually liked it! And yay, it has nothing to do with CSI for a change! Here it is, under tags for the sake of space:

( Dr. Cox is happy! )