I want my invisibility back...

So... what is with the male population of Cedar City today that I'm suddenly interesting to them? It's not like I did anything different, or even looked nice... And did I lose the ever-present "Buzz Off" that's stamped across my forehead or something? Really. I think I need to put that back on...

It's not like I mind or anything, but it's just odd that it should happen from so many people all in one day. Is it International Pull Anna's Leg Day, or what? And really, it's cool. That's fine. But I reeeeeally don't want or need the added aggravation of having a guy hanging around me, especially right now. I totally cannot handle any more drama. Really.

So... thanks, but no thanks. I'd like to become invisible again, if ya'll don't mind. I was so good at it, too...

So... yeah. Go away for about three more years.
--Anna Grace

Photos... a brave attempt.

Here are some of the photos (the notables) from my mountainous excursion and escape. If I wasn't almost out of gas, I'd so be up there right now... Anyway, there's a hayride Sunday in the mountains to go see fall colors, so I'll be taking my camera. Now that I've figured out how to post photos, expect a few more...

April's cool fish.

The sunspot in this one is pretty much my favorite thing ever...

I love looking down on the mountains, even though heights make me slightly uncomfortable.




I think my camera lens has a scratch in it that catches the light funny. You'll notice that curvy lighter stripe in most of these photos. Anyway. This is Cedar City, and seen from Cedar Mountain.

Random observations from a skinny chick...

I am really sick of looking at those stupid Myspace and Facebook ads that show a bare midriff, and then a thinner bare midriff, and proclaim "this is how I lost 40 lbs!" Now... this could be an observation from the outside-looking-in kind of mentality, but... what was wrong with the first picture? Why is a girl only "pretty" if her ribs are showing? I know I have a serious vendetta against this kind of stuff - partially because of the abnormally high number of times I've been accused of being anorexic or bulimic. To be perfectly honest, my eating habits aren't the best - but why must everyone assume that somebody skinny must have done something psychotic to get that way?

Secondly, to those ads that claim "I lost 37 lbs in just one month," I say, "what the heck?!" Do you realize that the average month only has 30 days? That means you'd be losing more than one pound every day. Do you have any idea how disgusting that is? Even me, and my ever-losing struggle to keep on weight, I don't lose it that fast. And if you had a lot to lose - you wouldn't want to either. People who lose weight too fast, their skin starts to sag, because it can't regain its elasticity fast enough to keep up with how fast that person is losing weight. Saggy skin - a definite fashion no-no.

Furthermore, as far as my perspective goes, I'd rather be healthy than skinny. I don't like being as thin as I am. If I sit in a chair with a hard back, my spine stabs me. Anybody who would WANT to be like this needs his/her head examined. Seriously. You know, if a fat person and a skinny person get lost in the desert somewhere with no food for weeks and weeks, guess who's going to survive? Twiggy's dead in five days, bet you anything. Not that this has a lot to do with anything. I'm just spewing random anger at the weight loss industry.

Obviously, some people maybe really do need to lose weight, for health reasons. But what the crap good is skinny as a cosmetic? People need to grow up and realize that there are other kinds of beautiful than what stupid Myspace and Facebook ads tell them.

A rare escape...

Yesterday, I put the editorials on my page. Nothing else was finished for me to place, and I only had one class, so I declared it to be my day off and drove up to the mountain. I got lots of pretty pictures - which is handy for my photo class - that I can upload just as soon as Blood helps me with the card reader. The trees are just starting to turn colors. The aspen hasn't turned gold yet, but the scrub-oak is dominating with brilliant red. I took some photos of Cedar City from far up.

Anyway. I needed a place to park so I could hike around and take photos, so decided to make tracks for the Gray's place - the only place on the mountain I really know. So I got there. Steve and April were outside. I went over to say hello, and April invited me inside for lunch. I got some nice shots of her fish pond. I love fish ponds... :) Anyway. We ate lunch, had a nice chat, and she gave me some nice tips of places to get cool photos, which I checked out.

I cruised around a bit more, sort of realized that escaping from oneself doesn't do much good when one takes oneself wherever one goes, and made tracks back down the mountain to print my photos and go to the library. If I can't escape from myself, I can at least shut myself up with some good fiction!

As of this morning, my page is awaiting corrections, and I have done what I need to do, except that I'm waiting for one of my editors to get here so I can chat with her about one of my articles... which doesn't seem to be progressing much.

As for now, I refuse to worry about anything, because I'm tired of worrying. I will sit here, enjoy my music, my Coca-Cola, and my rest.

The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began.
--Anna Grace

A good day.

Today seems to be a good day. I believe this to be mainly because my research paper in English is due today, and I have finished it. Last minute, of course. I did it Saturday. But the blasted thing is done. And Blood (also known as Richard) gave me his old headphones, so I'm sitting here listening to "La Habanera", from the opera Carmen, and thoroughly enjoying the forty-five minutes or so until my next class. Stories won't be assigned until later this afternoon, and I didn't take any this weekend (because I had to do the paper), so I enjoy a rare moment of freedom.

My stomach is bothering me again, and I sort of wonder if I'll ever really feel up to par again. I do hope so. But if I have to be sick, I'm glad that at least today, I can be sick in a good mood. Once again, yesterday I didn't get up to the mountain to go take photos. But maybe I can do it today. I'm really holding out for golden hour - which is usually about an hour before sunset and an hour after sunrise. I've already missed one, I just hope to make the other.

Along another note... I am so sick of politics. I realize that it's important to make a good choice of a leader who will run our country - and I do intend to vote. But I'm so sick of all the power-plays, the political maneuverings, and the general hullabaloo that surrounds the election. P.S.... I can't stand John McCain's wife... But that has nothing to do with anything.

I went to church yesterday - like I usually do. And the message... I could swear it was just for me. It kinda stabbed me in the face... (for those of you who are not familiar with Anna terminology, that just means that it hit a little too close to home). I love mini-church and all, but I'm sort of considering not going on Thursday, because I'm totally not looking forward to discussing it. But maybe I'll just suck it up and go anyway...

I suddenly realize that I have nearly nothing else to talk about, since the rest of my life is involved in school and the Journal, and I have already discussed those. Except, for Angie and Angela... I'm so excited about babies! Really, really excited! And I'm trying to teach myself to knit sherpa hats, but once we know whether the babies are boys or girls, I want to knit them baby blankets.

Liking little bits of relief,
Anna Grace

Letters to the Editor

Once again, in Eugene Mirman fashion, I choose to write "Letters to the Editor," in which I write letters to random things that bug me, and make me happy. It saves time, and it's slightly funny.

Dear Amoxicillin,
Knock it off! You are so not helping! Leave the stomach alone and take care of the head!
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear Hogi Yogi,
I love you. A lot. But your fella didn't put enough Mayonnaise on my sandwich today... It made me sad.
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear Angelas,
HOORAY! I'm so excited! I love babies! I'm going to make them all blankies (in my ever-present free time).
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear Rollercoaster Ride,
I don't know if I can ride you. You really scare me. Like... really. That's why I jumped off last time.
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear School,
If you hold someone's head underwater long enough... that person might just drown. I thought I might let you know.
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear Stomach,
Last warning! I'll have you amputated!
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear Music,
I love you... Don't ever stop, okay?
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear Articles,
HAH! Beat you for once... Until next week...
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear Research Paper,
Oh crap. I forgot all about you... Let's spend some quality time together this weekend, okay?
Love,
Anna Grace

Dear People,
Where did you all come from... and why are there so many of you? You slightly un-nerve me, you know...
Love,
Anna Grace

Here it goes again...

Just when I thought I'd taken a turn for the better (sinus infection maybe being defeated by antibiotics) today has royally sucked. I have been rather ill today. I found someone else to cover city council and was planning to go home and attempt to feel better, but alas, Christina called to say she'd changed the locks to keep Clint out. So... I am not covering city council. But Christina won't be home until about 11, and Christiana's in day care at the moment. And I don't have keys yet. Bugger it.

Plus, my page isn't cleared by the Captain... Matt is taking forever to read it. And is arguing with Kenzie about URLs vs. Web site names. And I'm listening to the thunder outside... which I love... but the door is open and it's very cold.

I want to go home. That is all.
--Anna Grace

On the run! (Not for the faint of heart.)

I get the feeling you're going to be getting lots of 'blogs-on-the-run' as the semester progresses. The newspaper has been going well. Very busy, as you must imagine. As it would be fairly pointless of me to blog about all the things I need to do but haven't yet (though the list may be long and interesting...), here's a quick update with what's going on with life.

Firstly, church. Some fairly interesting things have happened with church. And at church. Last Sunday, as I was half-dozing on the couch in the lobby with a killer migraine (that is still bugging me), someone started yelling for help in the parking lot. I ran outside like an idiot, thinking that I could help. My first impression was that someone had been hit by a car. There were two men on the ground next to a car in the parking lot. Then I realized one of the men had fallen out of a wheelchair and was half-way on top of it.

I figured that was something I could help with, so I ran to go pick him up. He was really heavy and I couldn't quite get him off the wheelchair. Somehow I missed that there was blood all over him, although I noticed a pen clutched in his hand. While I was half-supporting him, trying to pick him up, someone else came up behind me and started screaming, "He stabbed me!"

That, I think, made my brain shut off completely. The other, screaming man ran back in the church and someone else - I'm not sure who - ran out. I remember directing him (I thought it was Ari at the time, but it turns out it may have been another kid named Ozzy) to go get help, while I continued trying to pick the other guy up. When it became evident I couldn't do it, some other people from the church came running out and put him back in the wheelchair.

I retreated back into the church and sort of sat there while the cops and the ambulance came and examined the crime scene and the victim (who had been stabbed in the face several times with a ballpoint pen). When they had gone, I started realizing I had someone else's blood all over me and rather freaked out.

After I'd calmed down and gone home, I was in such a hurry to wash the blood off my clothes that I didn't bother to take my phone out of my pocket before tossing my clothes into the washing machine. Oops. This is where I can attest to the magical powers of rice in sucking water out of electronic devices. Not only does my phone still live and work, but the only lasting damage is that the internal LED screen looks like it's underwater and the photos the camera takes are upside down and purple.

As for other church things, I've started going to mini-church on Thursdays - which I really like, and I'm going to CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship) tonight. It's likely to be the only night I can ever go, because there's no City Council tonight. The City Councilors are all out of town.

Anyway... That's my news!
More later!
--Anna Grace