Who Can't Use A Reminder?

iFly . . . uFly . . . weFly?

My job is big on "team-building" activities. I'm not complaining, we've done some fun stuff in the past (except for that one time we had to go hiking and I got covered in burrs) and Wednesday officially trumped all previous activities. My department headed up to Ogden (affectionately known in my book as O-Town) to a place called iFly which specializes in indoor skydiving. Indoor skydiving, you say? Sounds risky. Sounds dangerous. Sounds terrifying! Well, my friend, it's actually pretty fun.

This is the tube where you "skydive." If you look closely, you can see that the floor kind of looks like chicken wire but a little closer together. Underneath the floor is where all of the air shoots up thus explaining why the floor is mesh . . . so the air can filter up but you have a place to stand. I hit the floor a couple of times while skydiving and actually you just bounce back up. It's springy. The tube continues up for another 20 or 30 feet. So there's a lot more room to rise up. The instructors who help you out are pretty funny. They keep you pretty level the whole time but then they do a show when everyone's done and they get pretty fancy with their tricks. They really know how to shoot up and come barreling back down.

To be honest, when we first saw the tube, and the informational video, we were all a little nervous. I thought I'd just have to go in there by myself and wing it (he he); however, you have an instructor and they help you with your technique and keep you level. I love this picture below because my co-worker Mallory looks totally freaked out. She was not alone, we were all a little nervous until they explained how it worked.

Getting ready to go!

Okay, this picture is staged, although the marks on my face are real. Ha. I fully expected to be afraid while skydiving but it came so naturally. You fall into the air and put your arms and legs out. It's kind of peaceful, that is, until my instructor spun me up into the ceiling of the tube. I'll admit I screamed a little as that roller coaster feeling in my stomach rose up to my throat.

I Live for Danger

I'm starting the public involvement for a new road project (stimulus money is starting to trickle down) and one of the less than exciting job duties are door-to-doors. Actually, I don't mind them too much. You just drop off fliers announcing updated information or road projects. If the weather's good (like today) then it's great, you walk up and down streets and if you're like me, you easily get lost in the moment. This new project, however, has presented its own new challenges. I started my door-to-door on Friday and delivered fliers to over 200 homes in snow and rain. I was soaked. I really liked walking in the snow until I got wet! And then I peaced out. See ya.

Today I visited a business park which I thought would be really easy. Think about it: there are a handful of businesses in one building, you take the elevator, you drop them off with the receptionist--easy peasy. Yeah, no. Every building had windy hallways and I had no idea if I was venturing into office space that only employees could be in or if I was finding the lone office in the back. Not to mention that every office had glass windows so I tried to look as inconspicuous as possible but how do you do that when someone is watching you through the window? Bleh.

The highlight of the business park was when I got locked in a stairwell. I probably should have brought a coworker. I realized once I got locked in that perhaps some masked weirdo could come in and attack me. But notice my panic when the door I walked through was the same door that wouldn't let me through! Bugger! I had a phone with me but who do you call? 911? Your mom? How weird would that be when you called someone and said, "Um, I'm locked in a stairwell in a business park. I don't know which building I'm in though." I walked up to the next floor and yeah, that door was locked too. One floor opened up to a completely empty office space. I walked to the basement and walked into a boiler room. Talk about creepy! Finally I found an exit door to the outside and I didn't care if it was going to set off a fire alarm, I was walking out. I did and thankfully no alarm sounded. But whatev if the alarm sounded. Like I said, I live for danger.

Adventures in World Traveling 1.1

How excited was I when I checked my bank account today and discovered that I had a negative balance? Super excited (read: sarcasm). I immediately blamed myself for buying my plane ticket--I knew I was going to be cutting it close but my calculations prior to the ticket told me I'd be fine and now my bank account was telling me I'd made an egregious error. However, as I continued to look at my account I discovered that American Airlines charged me twice for my ticket. Whoa! It certainly had a nasty effect on my bank account. Luckily, I called them up and they took care of the problem right away. I was a little nervous I'd have to haggle with them or demand to speak to a manager (you know those horror stories when businesses cheat you money and then insist that it's your fault) but they were actually really nice about it. Whew! I'm not going to lie, my heart is still racing. What's the antidote to a panic attack?

Big News!

I took the plunge and bought a ticket to England! For two weeks, my four roommates and I are going to be touring England, Scotland, and Ireland. Wow, I'm pretty excited.

Said in the Gym

It's not about being perfect, it's about trying.

A Day Playing in the Mud

Last weekend I went to the Festival of Colors down at the Hare Krishna (pronounced hari) temple in Spanish Fork. Who knew that Spanish Fork had a big old Hindu temple? Okay, I knew, but a lot of people don't know that. It's kind of funny because when you travel to Spanish Fork it has a very prevalent small town feel, you definitely feel like you're in the country, and then you see a temple . . . and not an LDS temple. I think it's really pretty, but yeah, it definitely feels out of place.

Apparently, there were about 3,000 people at the Festival of Colors. I've heard about the Festival of Colors for years and I was really excited to go, but to this day I still don't know the purpose behind the festival. I just know that there's music, llamas, body surfing, and A LOT of colored corn starch.


This is the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. Check out how many people were there . . . that's just a fraction. Also check out the temple, it's very pretty.

The main attraction to the Festival of Colors is you can buy colored corn starch and people throw it around and basically you get covered in so many different colors. As you can see, once people started throwing the cornstarch it created a massive colored cloud. We were right in the middle of it and by the end I was coughing and trying to breathe at the same time. It got deep in my lungs--it smelled awful and really choked me up; however, it was pretty fun, just being in this big cloud of pink, green, purple, blue, yellow . . . .

This is me getting all tangled up in the mess. If you look closely at my face you can see the slight outline of a handprint on my face. Also, because I wear so much lip gloss (I know, it's an addiction, you don't have to remind me), it just stuck to my lips and made them look big and swollen. I mean, I know we all want Angelina Jolie lips, but I got some serious freak show stares from many people. I tried to wipe it off but the inevitable occurred--I had to reapply my lip gloss because now my lips were dry and then someone would throw more corn starch in my face. This happened twice. Naturally, it stuck to my lips like glue. I finally gave up after a while and resigned myself to the idea that I couldn't save myself from the corn starch or my ginormous lips.


Mug shot! Check out my teeth . . . they're kind of blue. Also, you can see the handprint on my face better. It took four hair washes to get the corn starch and purple out of my hair. You should see our shower. It's kind of disgusting. It left a purple residue along the floor. Also, all of our jeans now have a pink residue to them (we were forewarned by Kaylin to wear old clothes) and my underthings are now bright pink. I guess the sacrifice one pays for playing in a big bowl full of color!