One night in Albuquerque.

(For those of you that don't know, that is New Mexico.)

On our travels, we, as a family, encounter less-than-reputable hotels. It is a fact of life that not every hotel can be the Ritzy Ritz Lavish Inn, and occasionally I lower my standards to stay at hotels that obviously cannot accomodate my lush lifestyle, like the Dallas hotel last night. Although I loved sleeping with random black curly hair, pink stains, and a bent pull-out couch bed, I was excited to wish it goodbye. I hopped onto that elevator like the dang hotel was on fire. I was thinking wishful when it came to the topic of breakfast, and as I lugged my luggage out the door and to the lobby, I was perfectly content with what I saw. The standard breakfast you would see about anywhere. Bagels here, toaster there, (no waffle maker.. bummer.) no big deal. I just grabbed myself some frosted flakes and some OJ and hit up the table in the middle to indulge in a pre-drive chat with my family and pet.

Unfortunately, my high-class tastebuds were dissappointed to taste the "frosted" flakes that adorned my styrofoam bowl.
I use the term "frosted" very carefully.
Now I'm not familiar with the exact frosting that decorates those wonderful flakes, but I'm pretty sure what I did taste was nothing close to what should have been used as "frosting" for my flakes. I'm sure if you went back to that rank hotel and checked the cameras, you'd see a box of corn flakes poured into a canister by some angry maintenence man, and then he shakes his head over said canister a couple times to "frost" these corn flakes. The frost like, blew away as soon as I examined it closer. And as I poured the fantastically warm milk into the bowl, the maintenence man frosting just melted away in the milk. I was eating like, dandruff flakes. Blehck. But it was food. See that again? Bright side.

However the OJ was fabulous. It seemed to have burned my mouth on the way in though. And the way down. And after that I felt a little off. But it was fabulous.

So I've been sitting in a car for HOURS on end, driving away from Dallas, Texas, to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I ran into a massive rainstorm on the way in, so bad I could not even see the road. First one of those ever, and I'd like to have that not happen again if that's possible mister Rain controller.

Other than that, it was uneventful until we arrived at faaaahbulous "Nativo Lodge" off the Pan-American Highway. It seems as if I stepped right into a Native American's big mansion. Everything is deep red, beige, or brown. Rugs and tapestries and other Native American knick-knacks drape every corner, and the pool was lovely. The hot tub however, fantastic. So hot.. and so tub-like. The only thing that reminds me I am in a hotel and not in a large teepee in the middle of a desert are the friendly Caucasian staff asking if I would like a cookie.

I couldn't help but wonder as I drove the west 10 to Albuquerque.. how hard must it be for the residents of Albuquerque to spell that every time they need to reference where they live?! Is there a song, or a reference chart where they can look it up? Do you think people tattoo it on their hands as to never forget how to spell it? Is there a state-wide crisis of how to spell it? Why is so complicated anyway?! SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!

Let us see just what tomorrow may bring us, as I arrive at the luxurious Hotel Monaco in downtown Salt Lake City tomorrow night.

One night in Dallas.

Dallas: The land of the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, and a hotel that housed my dog, my family, and myself for one night. The eve of my birthday.

Dallas proved to be... not that fantastic. At all. From what I saw anyway. Dallas-ites everywhere are going to spam my blog with hate mail about how fabulous the city of the Cowboys are, but I'm a recalcitrant! I doth not care for thine silly whims!

The room is nice. It has a bed. With hair in it. That doesn't belong to me. These lovely foreign pink stains only worry me a little bit, but other than that I am fairly sure I will survive. I'm sure some baddies will crawl through the air ducts while I sleep and take pictures of me or do the shaving cream and feather deal, but that's alright. At least it's a roof.

See that? Postive side. Good start.

SOL's Last Words.

I haven't posted any new blogs in a while, because I simply have been too busy as a football playing astronaut in space. With a mustache. So here is what I like to call "SOL's Last Words".

SOL's Last Words is a debate with SOL. Which of course, as everyone would know, is the acronym for my sisters and I, Stephanie, Olivia, and Laura. SOL. Get it? Get it?!

So, SOL will discuss a hot topic, and I will post the transcripts on this here blog post right now for you all to read. Because I know you have been dying to read, and I am being nice and fulfilling your requests.

Here is the debate topic: Should my grandmother buy a pet fish?

Stephanie: No.

Grandma: I would have Salmon. I like salmon. They taste soft. I used to take care of Andree's fish.

Olivia: Should my pet grandmother buy a pet fish?

Grandma: I was knitting you a poncho Olivia, and you know what? Those movers packed it.

Stephanie: Yeah, that had to do with a fish.

Laura: She was knitting the poncho for the fish!

Grandma: I was in the pet store with Andree in Utah, and you know what there was? There was a child about Olivia's age, and he was in there to buy a python snake. A python snake.

Laura: That doesn't surprise me.

Grandma: I've seen Mayflowers, but that moving truck is bigger than a mayflower!

Olivia: Yes, they tend to be big.

Grandma: Well I know they are big. But when I would drive they used to scare me. And when I would drive in Utah, they used to have double ones. And... *moving guy nearly falls downstairs* oh my god. Did they wrap my antique rocking chair? I mean did they, did they ship it?

Stephanie and Olivia: *uncontrollable laughter*

*mutton chops pizza guy arrives*

Laura: Look at that gentleman, even rings the doorbell when the door is wide open.

Stephanie: What's he gonna do? Walk in "Pizza's here! What's up Y'all!"

Olivia: How did we get from talking about a fish to an antique rocking chair??

Until next time..

Poetry Corner with SOL.

By Stephanie, Olivia, and Laura Fletcher.

The month of August is really lame,

Moving states ain't no fun game.

The colors of the house are brown and dull,
The moving truck outside is getting full.

The bright side is surely there,

Amongst the questions that are 'up in the air'

But this is not all that occured in these hot, hot days,

Because Degrassi is on, hip, hip, hooray!

And as this poem draws to a close,

I say to you readers, come out Riley Stavros.

this has been 'Poetry Corner' with SOL.

10 Things I Learned From Streetlight Manifesto

Hey everyone... I am the boyfriend that this crazy chick always talks about. My name is Wyatt. I love music, specifically ska, punk and anything really original and passionate. I also love surfing, long walks on the beach and eating romantic dinners, but this thing aint no E-Harmony profile, so I'm gonna shut up now. Apparently I'm supposed to write something on here for my beloved girlfriend. Why me, I dont know. I hate English and writing and all that jazz, but I'm going to make the most of it. I thought long and hard for about 15 seconds about something good that's happened to me recently. And out of the deep dark abyss of my brain, the Streelight Manifesto show I attended reared its not-so-ugly-head. For those who don't know what this Streetlight Manifesto thingy-mah-bobber is, lemme tell ya... They are an absolutely incredible ska/punk band. I'm not really going to go into great detail about them, because I could go on for days about how great they are, so instead, I'm just going to list 11 things I learned from the show. I had to go with 11 things just to be different from Laura's "10 Reasons I Want a Food Truck" post. Fair enough?......



1. Streetlight Manifesto is the greatest band to walk the face of this planet. ( I knew this before I went to the show, but it just confirmed my opinions..)

2. Tomas Kalnoky, the lead singer/guitarist is my one and only true man crush. Yeah. I said it. Man crush. He's just plain amazing and I admire him immensley.

3. No matter what race, religion, sexual preference, gender or attire you may represent, music always unites and brings us together.

4. Between screaming every last lyric, being smashed between what seemed like a moving, dynamic ocean of people, and trying to dance to the music, one can work up quite an appitite.

5. The Supervillians, which were an opening act to Streetlight, are quite fond of smoking the herb.....

6. Dan Potthast proved that an opening, solo, acoustic act can be one of the highlights of the night.

7. Mohawked men are very nice people to talk to while waiting for the next band to play.

8. Carrying 3 glasses of water through a crowd of people from the back to the front is not an easy task by any means.

9. It is possible to get Laura to say she likes Streetlight. It took a while, but 6 months, and one very amazing show later, I did it.

10. P.J. is can skank like a pro.

11. There's nothing like a gallon of water you pick up from a gas station after a show to quench your thirst.



There you have it! One heaping plate of blog for ya. Until next time....

Wyatt.

Ten reasons I want a food truck.

Everybody love that food truck, yah? You know what I be talking about. 4 wheels, one driver, and a hell of a lot of food. Food trucks are super sweet because when you are too lazy to go to the drive thru, the food drives to you!

Ten reasons I want a food truck.

1. Who doesn't want to drive around their own kitchen?! Literally everything, AND a kitchen sink. Luxury life.

2. If I get hungry, I can park it and walk to my trunk. Make myself something. DONE. Or you know. Don't park it and swerve into traffic. At least I won't be hungry.

3. I will be a hit with construction workers everywhere.

4. Three words: Riding. In. Style.

5. I don't have a job. So as soon as I borrow enough money off my Grandma to purchase the truck, the food, the gas, the advertising, car insurance, and other expenses... I will finally be amongst the employed! WOA YAH, BRAH!

6. Maybe I will get on that new show on the Food Network.

7. Pssh, me rolling up to the curb in my food truck? Someone get me a stick to beat all the LAID-AYES off my rear end! (Of the truck)

8. I could hook myself up with a horn song, so every time someone cuts off the Laura food truck, I could toot my horn and blast the theme song from Spongebob. That would teach them to cut me off.

10. I bet you realized there is no number 9. Didn't you.

:)

One hyperlinkin' beach day!

I do loves me some hyperlinks. It's like, a fun link hidden in words. :)

So I am going to tell you my story using HYPERLINKS! :D

Today my boyfriend Wyatt and I went to the beach today. It was such a blast! We played in the green green ocean, and Wyatt got out his casting net and caught lots of fish. We even found a few hermit crabs clams and tricked them into digging into our hands and in between our fingers. I flaunted my shizz out in my brand new swimming costume while strange creepers looked on from the sandy ledge. We paddled around in the water, and for all you ignorant people out there, no. We didn't encounter any of these. Or this. We did see tons of these though. And they were swarming, and annoying, and suckish. I drank tons of this golden beverage, and if you are getting tired of these hyperlinks, well.. poop on you. I had fun. :)