I'm Back! (I think?)

I stepped away from blogging nearly a year ago. I really miss having this as an outlet, although at this point I'm not sure how long or how often I'll keep it up. At the time that I stopped, I couldn't continue to blog while I felt so un-authentic.

In the days ahead, I plan on blogging about my trip to London. To give you an idea of how this all happened:

One day, a former co-worker who knows how much I love U2 sent me an email with U2's announcement of tour dates. No announcement was made for Salt Lake City... although I looked at the list longingly when I noticed that they were going to be in Wembley Stadium on August 14th.

Wembley Stadium is special to me. When I was 13, I stayed at a house across the street for a week. My dad had business to do in England, and had a colleague who lived across the street from the Stadium, and offered to let us stay in his house. (Picture the houses that Harry Potter's aunt and uncle lived in... very similar!) During the days, my dad would go take care of his work stuff while my mom, sister and I explored London. We would hop on the tube at Wembley Park Station, and just go and go and go and see as much as we could until our feet and legs couldn't take it anymore. One night as we were returning home and exiting the tube, there were people standing out there asking us if we had any AC/DC tickets to buy or sell. Apparently, AC/DC was in town. My sister and I could hear the concert, as well as some of the rif raff on the streets after the show, and we thought that it would be SO COOL to see a concert there one day.

At the same time I received the email with the tour dates, I was reading the book "The Secret". While I don't buy into the concept of The Secret entirely, some of it made sense. The Secret is that you have to ask for what you want. Put it out into the universe, and trust that it will be returned. So, in the spirit of "The Secret", I posted on my Facebook status update that I was accepting contributions, donations, or sponsorships to go see U2 at Wembley Stadium on August 14th. I did it half-joking. I didn't really think anything would come from it, but I wouldn't have turned the opportunity down.

Well, a friend of mine (we dated briefly in 2007. I refer to him as #3 in my past relationship series) responded saying "If you can get the concert tickets, I'll give you the skymiles to get there". Then another friend (and a Royal friend at that) said that he had a pre-sale passcode for me to use so that I could buy tickets before they went on sale to the general public. Also, my friend Equality essentially told me that I have to do this, because U2 made history at Wembley Stadium when they almost broke up after their Live-Aid performance.

All of this is going in my favor... the last thing to figure out was if I was going to do this alone, or if I could get someone to go with me. Who would be willing to go all the way to London with me to see U2? Unfortunately, none of my friends are die-hard U2 fans to the point of traveling across the globe with me, at their own expense....

....except... I work with this gal named Julie. She's close to my age, and also single. She makes good money, her car is paid off, she lives with her parents and she doesn't have kids, so very little in the way of financial responsibility. She loves to travel and in the past 4 years that I've known her, has been to England at least 3 times, on top of other global and local travel. All I had to do was ask, and she readily agreed.

So, I had a plane ticket, concert tickets, a travel mate, and a booked hotel room. Our adventures will follow shortly.

If I don't know where it was made, I don't want it!

My department has had 3 lunches this month, scheduled for the holidays. One of them was an end of year "Thank You" (can no longer classify official business meetings as Holiday) held by our department VP. It was a very classy event held at a prestigious restaurant, with great food and service. The second was held the very next day for the entire business unit. Lunch was catered in from a local business, lame gifts were given out, and it was okay. The third was held today, just a department potluck and white elephant gift exchange.

I really don't like potlucks. It's not so much a dislike, but rather, a fear. First of all, you don't know what the kitchens of your co-workers look like. You don't know if they wash their hands at home. You're not sure who as been in the line before you, touching the same utensils and breathing on the food. So many unknowns. Yet if you chose to not participate, the potential is there to be seen as the department scrooge. Such is my dilemma.

I "accidentally" forgot to bring a gift to exchange (not really- I just have no desire to trade my crap for someone elses), and brought a pre-made salad from Costco. I purposely waited for everyone else to go, and got at the end of the line. Then the department slug got in line behind me. This slug is a man that I work with that is the most condescending sexist pig I've ever met. How he is still employed by my very politically correct company, I'll never know. I know of at least 2 occasions that he's been busted for porn viewing in the office. His wife is a BYU professor! When he speaks to me he acts like he's teaching a sunbeam class. And he's huge... probably 6'4" and 300 pounds. And he's in line behind me. Behind me isn't a good way to put it, more like, he got in line ON TOP OF ME. Literally breathing down my back, his stomach touching my arm and waaaaaaaay over invading my personal space. So I got out of line and went back to my desk. I'm not THAT eager to make an appearance.

I wait for everyone to finish, and am the very last in line. No room for me at the big table, I have to sit at the "little kids" table with 2 others.

Doesn't every office have these lame-ass potlucks? Why? Does anyone REALLY like them? I mean, don't most people have the exact same experience I just described?

To end on a happy note, this was my last day of work until 2007. Yipee!!