"The Secret Stash"

This reminiscing is dedicated to my little sisters.

When I was younger, probably from ages 12-17, I had a nice bedroom. It was very neat and organized. A place for everything and everything in it's place. That saying makes me smile a lot because it just feels so good, but that is the best description you could possibly give of my bedroom at that age. The main reason my room was like this is that whenever I was in my room late at night, putting off doing homework, I would clean my room or at least a part of it, like organizing the things under my bed, etc. Anyways, it was a tidy room (I'm not actually sure this is actually relevant but it seemed like a good opportunity to explain the setting).

Like most young people who have siblings, I felt I needed a safe place to hide things, such as the little hard-earned money I had. It should be a place where I would not forget about but that no one else would ever find. I needed a secret hiding spot in my room. Not that I was worried about anyone taking anything, but you I just felt the need for privacy and a really great secret spot for stuff.

At some point I discovered that perfect spot and dubbed it "The Secret Stash". It was a hiding place so good, so secretive, that it would never be found. I know this because of the countless times I invited Jessica and Alyna to go through my room searching for it. Oh, how I would taunt them with it! "You'll never find The Secret Stash!" They were seriously curious about it and so I don't recall them ever passing up an opportunity to let them look for it. They looked everywhere! I gave them a clue every few months but after years and years of never knowing where it was, it was decidedly the best hiding place ever.

Mostly I kept money there but there were a few other things, including at one point a humiliating and incriminating list of boys I had had crushes on throughout middle school. Finally one day, I decided I didn't need The Secret Stash anymore. I told my sisters where it was. It was a big reveal for me. It was probably the biggest, best secret I had ever had - and it was great because 1) it was my secret to keep or tell, 2) there were people who wanted to know it, and 3) it didn't really matter whether I told it or not. So of course I kept it bottled up for so long. Even I am impressed with how long I had that secret place. Now the secret was out.

So now you are probably wondering where my secret stash was. Here it is: I had discovered that my radio alarm clock that sat on the vanity didn't really need batteries in it and so I started keeping stuff in the battery compartment. I also had two speakers that had battery compartments and those were also used. It was brilliant! At least it was when it was a secret. Oh well. I don't know why I thought about The Secret Stash, but the other day it just popped into my mind. Ah, nostalgia... Thanks for listening :)

Work and more work

What have we been up to lately?

I have worked. Basically full time every day for the past month. I have had a lot of work to do (yay!) and have managed to keep caught up. Jeran has also worked full time for the past month. He started a class or two and is trying to get some experiments worked out that will help determine what his thesis project will be. That doesn't seem to leave a lot of time for other things.

In most of his spare time for the last month, Jeran has been working on fixing the various things on the car that are stopping it from passing inspection this year. It was actually a really long list! We are really fortunate that we have two cars so we can take such a long time to get the old 1990 Honda back up to par. Jeran replaced a half-shaft, fixed old wiring, replaced bulbs, fixed seat belts, installed new headlight covers, and fashioned a new bumper-securing device. It has been a lot of work. Hopefully today it can pass inspection!

Of course, after a few Saturdays of working on the car, it was determined that we really need an exterior outlet in the front of the house so one day was spent on that. Fortunately, our friend Adam came to help Jeran out. It was a HUGE help to have him here! I got so much done since I wasn't having to pull on wires or install the outlet box, etc. Thanks Adam! It is pretty nice to have the box outside because Jeran uses the compressor and halogen light a lot out by the cars and now the front door doesn't have to be ajar and let the bugs in. Hooray!

I recently cleaned out my drawers and closet and I sure missed having sisters around to help me with that! It is a lot easier to get rid of clothes when there is someone close to you who might want that favorite old shirt than when you put them in a box and drop them off somewhere.

We are debating whether to go to Utah in December. There are many reasons we want to go. Mom and Dad get home from expatriating in Europe, my cousin Mand'y's wedding, Jeran's brother Rylen's mission farewell, snowboarding, general family-ness, Christmas... And there are a few reasons not to go: money, Jeran's work and possibly finals?, and getting someone to take care of our cats. Who knows. You never know what a few months will bring.

Happy September! I can't believe 2009 is already 3/4 over! In the nerdy part of my mind this reminds me that every year that we get closer and closer to overlapping a certain hundred year mark. I know this is a dumb concern, but I have had to think quite a bit about it when working with my work data. Here it is: So you are keeping track of people and their birth dates and some people tracked in the database systems are old, like DOB in the 1920's. Sometime these dates are stored like '04-19-21'. So in ten or so years, issues like this will start making my job a bit harder. When you see this date then, you have to wonder if it is this century or last. People's data isn't removed from these systems just because they die. Anyways, just a small insight into the kinds of thing I spend time thinking about while working. :)