not all mall-walkers are geriatric, you know...

You guys, I don't remember whether or not I've told you that I'm now a mall-walker. My friend Jeanna has been mall-walking for years, and she invited me a few weeks ago to join her. (I may have mentioned something about wanting to start a "exercise regime thingy" in her presence, and with no definable goal at hand, Jeanna took pity and invited me along. Bless her soul.)

We are Jeanna/Gina. Sans makeup because of so. many. reasons.
(Reasons: 1-6am is too early. 2-Who puts on makeup to go mall-walking?! That's crazy talk!
3-Sorry, fellow mall-walkers, but I'm not out to impress any of y'all. Etc.)

So, yeah. I joined her a few weeks ago. I think I've been something like eight times or so? I go on Mon/Wed/Fri with Jeans. -She has a pregnant friend who goes with her on Tues/Thurs; she invited me to join on Tues/Thurs, too, but mall-walking begins early, and I've got to work up to five times a week, you know? 

Because we meet at 6:00, folks! Six o'clock in the morning! I typically don't crawl out of bed until the last possible second, which is typically closer to 8:01 than 5:48. (I never set my alarm for anything that ends with a zero or a five. I don't even care if that makes me weird.)

One day soon, Jeanna's pregnant friend will have her baby, and I'll be joining her on Tues/Thurs. It'll be early. Five times a week. 

But, do you want to know something? It's been pretty darn great. I mean, sometimes I wake up feeling confused (Why is my alarm going off when it's so dark outside?! What day is it?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!)...but once I get my bearings, I hop out of bed, dress quickly, brush my hair, and drive to the mall. (Driving to the mall in the wee small hours of the morning takes, like, four-and-a-half minutes, tops, which is kind of rad.)

Also, what's great is the company. 

Jeanna is a pretty great lady. She's fun to talk to, and our laps seem to go by quickly.

I took this blurry picture just after we lapped three older gentlemen.
It's blurry because we walk really fast. Right, Jeans?

And I took this blurry picture about a minute before we lapped these cute gals.
The on in the middle is kinda spunky. I like her.

Jeanna tells me that when the weather turns lovely (round about June, I'm guessing, since we live in southeast Idaho), our walks will happen outdoors.

Until then, I'm happy to walk the halls of the local mall with Jeanna. And our older acquaintances. (One day, we shall be friends!)

If you've got three minutes to kill, go ahead and watch this YouTube video Jeanna put on my timeline on Facebook a couple of weeks ago...

Jeanna and I aspire to start our own chapter of Happy Walker Girls. (Not really.)

PS Did any of you watch it? Can this possibly be real? Jeanna and I can't decide for sure...

several reasons the fourth twilight book (whatever it's called) is awful:

In the past month or so, I've had a few conversations with a few different people regarding the Twilight series. Specifically, book four. (I can't tell you the name of it without looking it up; they're all "Twilight" to me.)

I've read all the books, so I feel like I can dole out any review I see fit. And the way I see it is: the entire series is ri-dang-diculous.

I've only read them once (because reading them more than once seems like a horrible punishment). Also, I haven't read them since about a week after the last book was published. (How many years ago was that?)

I thought book one was a fun little escape from reality. Ridiculous, but entertaining.

Was it book two where Edward left and Bella became a teenage toddler? Whining and tantrumming and showing her truly obnoxious colors? (What did Edward and Jacob see in Bella, anyway? Not that either fellow was all that enticing, either.) I didn't care for book two...

Book three...I can't recall what the what happened in book three. Edward was back, right? Something about the Volturi? Or maybe something to do with a specific vampire wanting to suck Bella's blood because she smells so good? The only thing I remember about book three is that I didn't like it at all.

But did that stop me from buying book four? No, it did not. In fact, I remember rolling my eyes at myself when I stood in line to make my purchase, recalling with clarity how annoyed I was by the majority of the characters. I wasn't Team Edward or Team Jacob; I was Team Get-The-Heck-Away-From-Forks-Washington-And-Find-A-Mortal-And-Live-A-Normal-Happy-Life. 

But I bought book four the week it came out because I was morbidly curious  as to how on earth Stephenie Meyer was going to end this dang saga. 

I had no idea she would provide me with so many reasons to hate book four, but, boy, did she!

Remember, it's been a few years (four?) since I read it, so my memory is kinda spotty on some of the details. But here goes:

-Bella being a pout-face about Edward wanting to be old fashioned and wait until marriage before they consummate their relationship. 

-The fact that Edward is capable of reproducing. Seems like someone without a pulse ought not be able to reproduce, am I right?

-The way it was written, I always figured that the baby was demon spawn.

-Rosalie suddenly warming up to Bella because of said demon spawn.

-The pregnancy going so incredibly quickly; isn't it weird that the vampire sperm was the deciding factor in how quickly it went, and not Bella's mortal body? (I know this entire argument is dumb-dumb, but it annoyed me, so it's on the list.)

-Bella-the-human sucking down blood during her pregnancy. It grossed me out. Hard. Especially since, when the baby is born, they figure out baby can have regular people food or blood; seems like blood-during-pregnancy was completely unnecessary.

-Bella named her daughter Renesmee. I realize it's a combination of her mother and Edward's adopted vamp-mom, but come on. I figure if it had been a boy they should have named him Charlisle. (I know Bella had a name picked out for a boy, but I don't remember what it was. Plus, I'm funny.)

-Baby Renesmee grows, like, super fast. And I give Stephenie props for sticking to her super-fast-growing-spawn, but...I don't know. Maybe the part that annoyed me most was that Alice and Rosalie bought the kid tons of outfits for pictures to document it so that she seemed like a regular kid. Even though she's half-immortal and is anything but regular. I figure I'd document the fact that she's growing ridiculously fast, right? Because...I don't know; I've already talked about this point for way too long.

-Once Bella becomes a vampire, it's discovered that she's got ultra amazing self-control when it comes to smelling people blood and not going crazy.

-Re: the self-control: the Cullens wonder if it's Bella's new found super power.

-Why do all of the Cullens get super powers, anyway? It's supposed to be rare.

-Later we find out that it's not, in fact, her super power; she has another one! So the self-control came from her preparation? In knowing what she'd become before she turned? I don't buy it.

-Bella's real super power is a force field to protect all her loved ones. Pretty neat, huh? FORCE FIELD! My family and friends are safe from any hurtful thing that can happen to them! Yessss!

-Vampire sex is supposed to be, like, elevated from mere mortal sex. Humans just don't know.

-The entire book is anti-climactic. The Volturi come, ready to destroy the Cullens, the demon baby, and everyone who stands in their way; yet when they show up, NOTHING HAPPENS. They see that the demon baby is in fact half-immortal (not possible), which they think is pretty neat, and then they go on their merry way home. They might as well have held hands and skipped off into the twilight as they left, or flown home on unicorns. Great literature is supposed to have a climax and some sort of resolution, whether happy or sad. Heck, even crappy literature has a climax! I feel like Stephenie Meyer could’ve made this a less terrible book if she’d have even faked a climax, like they did in the movie version (Twilight four-point-two, as I like to call it. Yes, I’ve seen the movies, but that’s another story for another time).

Aaaaanyway. I'm quite certain that there are more reasons I hated the book, but, as I already told you, it's been years. And I refuse to read it again.

Beautiful Noise

Three words, my people: Mr. Neil Diamond.

He's on tour, you know. Has been since 1966 or '67 (as I recently heard from his own lips, as it turns out). Yes, Neil's on tour, and I saw him LIVE last Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium. And although, "See Neil Diamond in concert" has never technically been on my bucket list, I'm half tempted to add it and cross it off, just because his concert. was. AWESOME.

Cameron saw this license plate in the parking lot. Obviously I love it.

 Okay, so maybe his voice isn't as rich as he used to sound on his albums of long ago. And, okay, maybe he did the sing/speak thing a lot more than I'd care to admit. -Sing/speak is one of the many (many!) reasons I cannot handle Michael McLean and his music, but guess what? Neil Diamond is a legend who has been singing and writing music for nearly 50 years. If he wants (needs) to sing/speak sometimes, he can do it, and I shan't judge him (too harshly).

A lovely sunset kept us company as we waited for the concert to start.

Cameron and Aimee

Me and Jami

Anyway, I bought my ticket, like, 10 months ago.

I grew up listening to Neil Diamond, enjoying his soulful tunes since I was just a wee lass. I daresay I love him.

Part of the fun this specific concert is that we were surrounded by baby-boomers and geriatrics. When I looked around and noticed how happy (and..."mature") my fellow Neil-lovers were, I realized, "This will be a FUN concert" and I totally let myself be ridiculous. I sang out loud and swayed with the music, and I felt the music, man!

Right here. This is the moment when the magic began.
(It all started with the mullet-ed man in the hat. And Neil Diamond, of course.)

 Other fun little tidbits from the evening:

-Neil Diamond mentioned that he came out of a semi-retirement in '66 ot '67, starting in SLC, and has been touring ever since.
-He also mentioned that he was recently remarried (within the past few months), and talked about how much he loves his wife, etc. (Know what? Neil Diamond may wax a bit cheesy at times, but it's heart-felt and I love it.) Anyway, he said something like, "I'd like to be able to tell my wife that I wrote this song ("I'm a Believer") for her, but the truth is, she wasn't even born when I wrote it." (This song was made popular by the Monkees in 1966. Neil's wife was born in 1970. Neil was born in 1941. Now you know.) Cameron, Jami, Aimee and I appreciated his honesty and his candor. :)
-Neil sang "Sweet Caroline" and the crowd. went. WILD. I'm telling you, the entire crowd freaked right out. So after he finished, he talked for a second and then told his band, "take it away," and he did a reprise. That was fun. The crowd ate that right up, too. Then he did another reprise. Of the same song. And the crowd went wild again. (Still?) At that point, Neil said, "I couldn't sing that again if I wanted to. Actually, I don't much care for that song any more." (Again, the honesty!) And then...he had his band do one. more. reprise. Without him. He left it up to us (his adoring fans) to keep the song going. That's a total of 4 times. I can't help but laugh, really...
-One of my favorite parts of the evening is when Neil said, "I want to introduce you to the greatest band in the land: MY BAND!" And that was it.
-Cameron and I came up with a list of names for my future daughters (apparently?), taken from Neil Diamond songs: Holly (Holy), Shilo, (Cracklin') Rosie, (Hey) Louise, (Sweet) Caroline, Desiree, Chelsea (Morning)...there may be more.

Anyway, that old man sure can rock it. I am totally thrilled that he's still touring, because  now I can say I've lived a Neil Diamond concert! I sincerely feel like a cooler version of my old self. ("Old self," meaning the "pre-Neil-Diamond-concert-attending-Ginabean." Obviously.)

I love Neil Diamond, and I regret nothing. Going to that concert is maybe the coolest thing I've done all year...

These guys were behind us a bit, and made our concert experience even better.

I feel quite confident that this pic was taken during one of the reprises of Sweet Caroline...

 As the concert drew to a close, I said, "If he doesn't sing 'America,' I'm going to be very upset. Then Neil Diamond walked off the stage, and I was upset. (Do I know myself, or what?) Fortunately, Salt Lake City loves Neil Diamond, and we clapped and cheered until Neil had no choice but to do an encore. And the encore is where Neil had tucked 'America' away. Hidden away for only his loudest, most beloved fans. (Or something.)

I uploaded my view of "Sweet Caroline" onto YouTube, if you care to take a look...

Anyway...

Three words, my people: LONG! LIVE! NEIL!

AVIATOR?

I bought a vest last week. From Target. (Oh, how I love The Target!)

I wore it to work on Thursday, and didn't realize, until Nicolas mentioned it, that my vest has a very...aviator look about it. No harm done, though. He said he liked it, and I felt like I was wearing it well.

Fast forward: I got back to work after lunch and saw Jami at the front desk as she waited fir a client to no-show. She looked up and said, "I like your vest." And then she started to laugh. Heartily.

This got me thinking that maybe I wasn't wearing it as well as I originally believed?

Jami assured me that she really did like it, but that it would be fun if I wore a pair of aviator sun glasses, just for fun. While she took a picture.

It just so happens that our friend Dustin (who works with us) had a pair out in his car. So he got them. And I put them on. For a picture.

Jami and Dustin wouldn't let me look at myself in a mirror until after the picture was taken...

I totally pulled it off, yes?

Not sure what's up with my face, however. I want to say I was winking...but I'm not entirely sure if that's accurate...