Whoa! I am Naked in Here!

I wasn't feeling that great today. I decided to take an early lunch and come home and take a nap. All of my roommates are working professionals, and I am the only one whose office is close enough to come home during the day, so no one is ever home between 8-5. Because of this, I got home, went straight back to my room and didn't even bother to turn on my light or shut the door. Not wanting to get my work clothes wrinkly, I decided to just take them off and climb into bed in my underwear. I set my alarm to give me plenty of time to make it back to work in time and quickly dozed off to sleep.

Things were going great until I was woken up by the doorbell. I decided to just ignore it, but the person seemed fairly persistent. I finally decided I should get up and get it, but then I figured by the time I got my clothes on and to the door, they would be gone. I rolled over to go back to sleep when I heard the door open and a man's voice call out, "Maintenance! Anyone here?"

I froze and my first instinct was to be really quiet and hope he didn't know I was there. Then I came to my senses when I realized that plan would backfire if he was here to fix something in my room. I timidly yelled, "Hello??" He then again identified himself as maintenance and said he would be working in hall and in the bathroom next to my room. I just layed under my covers in my nearly naked state, covering myself as much as possible and wondering if I would be able to get back to work on time. I wondered if I could get up and close the door without him seeing me. Being too afraid to try that, I decided to wait it out and hope he was fast.

After a little while, I heard him leave. I was just about to make a dash for the door when he came back in. He was here for a while longer and left again. This time I waited 15 minutes and figured it was safe when he still hadn't returned. I quickly shut and locked my bedroom door, pulled my clothes on super fast and ran out the door back to my office. What a day!

Sing, Sing a Song

So last week during ward counsel, the bishop mentioned that he wanted to have a musical number for ward conference today instead of a practice hymn. The girl in charge of music looked fairly perplexed by this, and so my friend leaned over and said, "Oh don't worry, brenna and I can do something!"

Now back in the day, I used to perform all the time. I started playing the piano in church when I was twelve and from then on out, I regularly played the piano or sang in sacrament. Since high school though, I haven't done anything like that. After she volunteered us, she looked and me and said "that's ok, right?" I reluctantly agreed.

Well, we sang today. I couldn't believe how nervous I was! I don't have church until 12:30 and was practicing beforehand. I was so nervous that I started shaking, while I was still at my apartment! When I got to the chapel, my nervousness didn't go away at all. I think I prayed during that meeting more and than any meeting in a long time. As the time approached, my nerves calmed enough to be able to walk up to the pulpit. We started singing, and I slowly yet surey began to shake even more.

I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but whenever I'm standing at a podium of somekind and I am nervous, I can keep my whole body still except for my bum. It never fails, during musical numbers, talks, presentations, when nervous, my bum just shakes. I don't know if it is because I am trying so hard to keep everything from shaking that it all gets concentrated in that one spot or what. I always wonder if the bishopric and people on the stand can tell this and if it happens to anyone else.

Is anyone going to be brave enough to confess to also having a bum shaking problem? Don't be shy, my bum is quite large and so yours can't be worse than mine...

... And Apparently not be able to Leave

Iowa Trip Part 3

When I went to check in online, I noticed my flight was delayed, meaning I would miss my connection in Denver. Well, we called (I can't keep from calling United's helpful customer service) and the guy said there were no more connections, and I would just have to wait in Denver until morning. He said they would give me a hotel and food voucher, but there was nothing else I could do about it.

We decided to head to the airport and see if I could catch a flight to a different city and get back before work the next morning. Once there, the lady was even less helpful than on the phone and said they wouldn't even give me a hotel voucher. She said when it was weather related (there was no bad weather in Iowa City, but some other city that set things back) they didn't give any form of compensation and that I would just have to be stranded in the Denver airport. I decided that was absolutely ridiculous and declined a night in the airport. Luckily Erin and Abe graciously offerred to let me stay with them another night and a ride to the airport the following early morning. The plan was to take the first flight out of Iowa, catch an early flight in Denver and be able to be at work by 10:30ish (remember I was supposed to be back in town for a full day). I arrived the next morning, only to encounter another delay getting out of Iowa City. By the time we took off, I knew I would have approximately 12 minutes between my first flight landing and my second one taking off. Amazingly, we somehow made up a few minutes in the air, and we landed with 16 minutes to go.

There were a handful of other people on the plane in the same situation, and luckily, the other passengers were kind enough to let us off first. We landed at gate B-88 and I had to get to gate B-47. The older gentleman behind me had to get to B-46 in the same amount of time as me, so we took off sprinting through the terminal together. I felt bad, but I quickly had to leave him behind as I darted between the other people in the airport. I ran and ran and ran. I am pretty out of shape and thought I was going to pass out, but I kept running and running. When I approached 47, much to my dismay it didn't say Salt Lake. I stopped long enough to check a screen and discover the gate was changed to B-17. Again, I found my self running. At least as a form of encouragment, as I dashed people, many would yell "Go, go, go! You can make it!"

Somewhere around B-30 my phone started ringing. I almost didn't answer, but since it was a coworker, I decided I better. I breathlessly answerd, "Hey ---." To which he replied, "Hey Brenna, where are you?" I barely got out, "I'm running through the Denver airport trying to catch my flight which leaves in 5 minutes." He then said, "Well, we're having a team leader meeting, and you're not here. When are you going to be here?" I couldn't help but think, "Seriously? I can barely speak, and I told you I'm not in Utah, my flight is about to leave, I still have about 20 gates to go, and you're asking when I'm going to get to the meeting?" I contained my mean thoughts though and managed to get out, "Well, I'm not going to be able to attend team leader meeting today...." We then said our good byes and hung up.

As I approached my gate, I was excited to see a line of people outside the gate door. I ran up and was informed by a sweet elderly couple that the flight was delayed... At that point I didn't know whether to be happy or cry.

After the delay, I finally made it back to Salt Lake. The problem was, Matt was originally going to pick me up (on Monday night), but he had to work Tuesday morning, so he couldn't come and get me. Also, there is essentially only one time a week that my mother has something that has to happen at that time, Tuesday morning, so she couldn't pick me up. The rest of my friends were either at school or work. Matt drove his truck to work (in downtown Salt Lake), so I was going to take the bus to his work and drive back so I could get back to my office, but according to the bus schedule, it would take 1 1/2 hours to get into downtown. So, I ended up sitting around the Salt Lake Airport waiting for another hour until my mom was able to get me. She then drove me straight to work, where I arrived just a short time before I had to conduct an interview.

As I sat and waited, I couldn't help but laugh at how I mistakingly thought I somehow had a whole trip with United with no glitches. At least, at that point, with so many things going wrong, breathless phone conversations and getting more exercise than I had in quite some time, I couldn't help but laugh and think, "Well, at least I have a fun story to tell...."

...They Will Come (Or at Least I Did)

... So I got to Iowa thinking it was too good to be true that I got there with no problems with the airline. Erin and Abe picked me up when my flight got in about midnight. We chatted for awhile and headed home for bed.

The next morning we got up and headed to the diner in town where all of the political candidates eat when in town. It was great food and a fun little atmosphere. After eating, we headed off to Hawkeye football game. It was a little bit different than BYU football. I'm not exactly used to the "real" tailgating atmosphere. We left about halfway through the third quarter, and apparently I missed the school song of "In Heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here.." My favorite part of the game though, might have been the baton twirler girl. They actually have a girl on full scholarship for baton twirling. It was great; she just wanders around the sidelines in a sparkly bikini doing tricks with her baton. I've decided that's how i'm going to pay for my graduate studies. First, I just have to learn to twirl. Hopefully I'll be able to work up to flaming batons!

That night, Erin and Abe were in charge of a ward party. We headed out to a really pretty area by the reservoir (which was all flooded during the big floods this summer). It was fun to meet a lot of their friends, and their activity was a huge hit with the bishop commenting multiple times, "This is a really great event, one of our best!"

Sunday we had went to church and then headed to Abe's family for dinner and the CES fireside. We also played a few exciting games of Mexican Dominos and Scrabble. We also made some excellent tasting pretzels. What can I say? It was an action packed day! How could i resist not showing this gem? While at Abe's house, his sisters entertained us by making faces such as this one. Erin had to go to school on Monday, so she headed out early to start working on her patient. Abe was kind enough to play chauffeur and drive me around all day. I met Erin a little while later at school, where her classmate made me some bleaching trays for basically nothing. This is my "Do I really want to let my sister stick sharp instruments in my mouth?" face...

Then Abe and I headed over to his lab where I got to meet his mice, fill micro-pipette trays, tour rooms where I wasn't allowed to touch anything or else I would get cancer, and see some mice's hearing get tested. It was pretty cool.

That evening, we had some delicious Chicago-style pizza before my flight. It was a lot of fun to go out and see where my sister has been for the past few years. I was skeptical about Iowa, but I have to admit, I really enjoyed myself and the town. No wonder the Field of Dreams is there!

This post is getting quite long, so the journey home will have to be another continuation. I know everyone is anxiously awaiting...

Quirky? Me?

My siblings and Ashley tagged me wanting 6 quirky things that I do.

1-- I have to have a perfectly made bed before I can go to sleep. My freshman year of college, I always slept until the last possible minute (therefore not leaving time to make the bed). Every night though, I faithfully made my bed. I like it to be really really nice and even pull the bed away from the wall to ensure it is exactly right. My roommates thought this was very weird and would come and jump on my bed after I was in it as a way to annoy me. After they did this, I would have to get out of bed, and remake the whole thing.

2-- I don't eat hamburger. If you don't remember this, read here. I have been trying to get over this weird fear/dislike though. I'll keep you posted on my progress...

3-- I don't touch animals. It isn't that I dislike them, I just have no desire to have their dirt and nastiness on my hands. My family's dog Chico and I never got along because he wouldn't leave me alone. As soon as he learned to respect my boundaries (i know, he's a dog, what does he know?) we started getting along great.

4-- I make my living doing communications things such as editing. Ever I worked in the publications department in New York, I mentally edit everything I read (hopefully this doesn't make people afraid to write to me...), emails, books, billboards, scriptures, you name it, I think about every comma, period and apostrophe.

5-- I'm not a swimmer, instead, I am a sinker. I took swimming lessons all growing up and can swim when necessary, but it is very difficult for me. I have to work very hard to stay afloat (and I am slightly afraid of water). Despite this, I really enjoy scuba diving. It took some coaxing and bribing from my family to get involved, but now I can honestly say that I look forward to our scuba trips. To me, diving and swimming are not the same thing, but people tell me that this is very strange.

6-- It seems like my entire family talked about their toes, so for my last one, i'll do the same. My toes are not as nice as colty's but they are not like erin and amber's. They are nice in the middle toes.

If You Build it...

So I decided to use my flight voucher to go out and visit my sister who is going to dental school out in Iowa. She has been out there for more than three years now, I figured it was high time I got on out there to see her new home. She lives by a pretty small airport, so flights out there are usually not exactly the cheapest. Lately though, for whatever reason, United Airlines has had flights for a little over $200.


Thursday evening, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a ticket for the next day. The plan was to to the early evening flight out, and use all the extra hours I had accumulated from working the huge event I was in charge of to take Friday afternoon and Monday morning.


Sadly, the internet at my apartment wasn't really working, and I had to head up the canyon for a ward activity. My sister, being so excited to see me, offered to purchase the ticket for me. I emailed all the voucher information I had and headed off to the activity. As we headed back down the canyon and back into cell reception, my phone started buzzing with voicemails and texts. Apparently, the confirmation number United gave me didn't work. My sister and brother-in-law spent an hour on the phone with them, but they just kept saying I had to have more information (which I did not, they only gave me the one number).


I went to my office to try and buy the ticket, but wasn't able to do it online. I called and spoke to a representative and was informed that United changed their voucher numbers from a 15 digit to 18 digit number. Apparently people were hacking in and guessing the 15 digit numbers, so in order to protect their customers, they changed all the numbers. In theory, this is a great thing to do, but they forgot to tell their customers about it. Apparently they issued everyone a new 18 digit number, but the only way to find out what about the new number was to call and get it. After explaining this, they assured me the office who could help me was indeed still open (it was about 11:30 p.m. at this point) and transferred me to a voicemail saying office hours were until 5.

The next morning I spent an additional hour on the phone getting everything figured out and my flight booked. During this hour, I complained about the hours I spent on the phone the night before and not being informed of my new number. After some coaxing, she offerred me a $25 flight voucher (that I couldn't use for my flight to Iowa). I nicely told her that was very gracious, seeing how it was enough to cover the new baggage fee they instated and then asked to speak to her supervisor so I could file a complaint. She told me, "I would be happy to have you speak to my supervisor, but I can assure you, he can't issue any additional vouchers than the $25 I already gave to you." I told her that was just fine, I didn't care about the vouchers, I just wanted to file a formal complaint about the fact that United is trying to cheat their customers out of vouchers. She transferred me, and after being put on hold, her supervisor got on the phone and without me even saying a word told me they were issuing me an additional $100 voucher. I thanked him and said I still wanted to file a written complaint. To that, he gave me $25 more. This cycle went on for a little while longer until he finally realized I wasn't going to give up on the formal complaint.

I hung up the phone with them at 2:45 p.m., left my office at 3 and was on my way to the airport by 3:20. Talk about last minute trip!

So, now I have additional flight vouchers. I'm pretty excited that I'm getting multiple trips out of this, but pretty bugged that their customer service is so horrible (not to mention the fact that they outright lied in an attempt to get me to not speak with a supervisor). Who knows, with their track record,maybe i'll be flying United for free for the rest of my life (Is is worth the horrible service?!).

My Iowa travelogue will be coming shortly. For a sneak preview and Erin's thoughts on it, visit here!

Hmmm....

So I have started several posts in the last couple of weeks, but then, nothing comes to me. I'm trying to decide if it is better to have lame-o/boring posts or nothing at all...