Trial

So...I haven't been blogging at all lately, this we all know. I honestly have spent most of my free time the last three months "couponing." Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy cutting out the coupons and organizing them in my binder (yeah, sometimes I think I'm weird for enjoying super hum-drum activities like this). But it takes A LOT of time. Plus, when it comes to my blog, let's face it:

Sometimes I'm just plain lazy. And that's ok with me.

Anyway. This brings me to the real subject of this post. My trial.
Most of you probably know by now that I'm on a jury. Not just any jury, but an extremely lengthy jury. Any of you who know anything about jury service or have actually been on a jury know that I'm not allowed to talk about it. This drives me bonkers. But I have to vent a little, so I will talk about what I can.

When the whole jury selection was going on, I actually thought, "Hey, I've never been on a jury, and this would get me out of work for almost three months. The case seems interesting, so I won't try too extremely hard to get out of it." I honestly thought they wouldn't pick me, since I actually kind of wanted to get on. How hard could it be? You get to sleep in later than normal, work way shorter hours, have super long lunches, and have an afternoon break. In the courtroom, all you have to do is listen and take notes occasionally to remember stuff. Easy, right?

WRONG. I got picked. Juror #7. First couple of weeks, everything was interesting. Hearing the witnesses talk about what they were there for was something I had never experienced. My hand got tired every day from all the notes I was taking, trying to remember everything (literally) that was said. In the middle, everything had changed up a bit and was still quite interesting. At this point, I'm thinking, "This is getting more confusing, but they'll totally have evidence that will clear all doubts either way for sure." Hm.

Now, here we are at the end. The trial was extended, because the judge underestimated the time of things. Only a few days, not a big deal. Or so I thought. Now my thought process is like, "Holy frick. We're almost at the end, and I'm changing my mind about the verdict almost every hour. This person's future is partly in my hands. Why do the lawyers have to be such butt faces to the witnesses?" I'm stressing myself out so badly I'll probably start getting cold sores all over my lips. Today I thought I just might lose it. Here's what my notes looked like (at least what I can write):

**I HATE THIS**
**KILL ME NOW**
**I HATE PEOPLE THAT DON'T KNOW HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS**
**I HATE PEOPLE THAT DON'T LISTEN TO THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS THEY JUST ASKED**
**I HATE SUCH AND SUCH'S DRAB CLOTHES**
**I HATE PEOPLE WHO LIE**

These are just a select few...so yeah. Needless to say, today was not the best day of my life. I literally wanted to punch something (or someone). I had a real good can't-speak-for-sobbing-too-much cry fest when I got home (My husband is wonderful). A good workout fixed that aspect of my frustration, but only temporarily. Tomorrow I have to go back, and I will see this to the end. Dang it.

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why.

You know, there are several types of people I would like to switch lives with for one day. If I could take a week, I would spend Monday as a rich celebrity (mostly just for the money, since I don't really like to be the center of attention).

Tuesday, I would probably choose to be some kind of a school or marriage counselor. I would love to be able to talk with people, listen to their problems and actually be able to help them, instead of just being able to listen attentively.

Wednesday, I would choose to be a professor at a community college. I've been playing with the idea of becoming one (because I don't want to teach middle school or high school...yuck), and I would really like to see what it's like to have people in your class, some listening, some not. Some respecting you, and others figuring out ways to take advantage of you. I could probably handle anything for one day, after all.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I would want to switch with someone in three different countries (maybe Greece, Indonesia, and the other...New Zealand?). First, I want to see those people and live in their culture for just one day. Second, I have wanted to visit these places and I would try to sneak in some touristy time while I was there. I would probably not want to be done after that day, but I would get to experience that, and it would be awesome.

Sunday is the one I think I would want the most... I want to switch lives with a mom. I want to see what it's really like to be one. Now, I'm not talking about telling my friend or my sister with kids to take the day off while I watch her kids. No. That's not the same. I want to experience a day where those kids drive me out of my mind, but I have so much love for them that I still want to keep them around. I want to take the time to sit down and play with them and teach them. I guess that would be a pretty tall order to fill, but it would be kinda nice to experience the real thing before we take that plunge. And yeah. I know once we have the kids, I'll probably want to switch back to a kid-less person again. But hopefully just for a day.   :)

Day 16- Something you could live without.

Well, this one gets my mind going in what seems like a ridiculous direction...Seriously, what could I live WITHOUT? Umm...the list is endless.

Even though I have a lot of things, probably MOST of them I could live without, if I had to for some reason. I could live alone on a deserted island and probably not die. Guess I wouldn't know for sure unless it actually happened. Which of my possessions could I live without? Well, I could live without a car, my furniture, most of my shoes, my television, the dishwasher, or my computer. I wouldn't die without those things. But I do enjoy them, and I feel like they enrich my life. I could even live without Mexican Coke. But unless I move to, again, a deserted island, I will keep drinking them.

So, here we are again. And the only thing I can think of (with the exception of everything I have, of course) are a few of my coworkers. No, I take that back. Mostly just ONE of my coworkers. Don't get me wrong, I don't want her to die or anything. I would just be completely and totally fine with never having this person around me again. Not having to interact with her would be almost heavenly. I could very much live without the criticism, the condescension, the "Ex-CUSE me?"'s, and the talking about everyone quietly so she thinks we can't hear, but we sure can.

Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me want to punch her in the face a little bit.

Guess it's time to pray for charity.

Hope it works.

Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle & share the first 10 songs that play.

I have to admit, I've been really excited about this one...

1. "Anna Freud," The National.

2. "Banana Pancakes," Jack Johnson.

3. "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect," The Decemberists.

4. "Sunshine Of Your Love," Cream.

5. "More Than Us," Travis. (I only downloaded this music because of my husband's name, it's true. It's actually pretty good though, I've been pleasantly surprised.)

6. "Whatever's Left," Snow Patrol.

7. "Track 10," Ingrid Michaelson. (Yeah, a little embarrassing that I don't know some of these, I got a bunch from a friend on a burned CD and have never been motivated enough to go through and find the names for each one. I don't have that many free tags on my Shazam app. :) )

8. "Fortunate Fool," Jack Johnson. (I promise I have more than Jack Johnson on this thing...)

9. "So Much Like My Dad," George Strait. (I actually have way more George Strait on here than Jack Johnson, believe it or not.)

10. "Will You Come and Fetch Me," Of Montreal.

(Well, some of these are kind of boring, and a bunch of people reading may not even know too many of these songs, so I'm going to be rebellious and go to 15.)

11. "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, and Wives," Voxtrot.

12. "Go On," George Strait.

13. "Wraith Pinned in the Mist and Other Games," Of Montreal. (This was the first full song from Of Montreal I heard, I loved it. A little trivia: Of Montreal sings the "Let's Go Outback Tonight" song from the Outback Steakhouse commercials. Fun huh? :) )

14. "Leningrad," Billy Joel.

15. "Where Do They Make Balloons?" They Might Be Giants.

(I lied. I'm going to twenty. Stop reading if you want.)

16. "This River Is Wild," The Killers.

17. "La Historia De Juan," Juanes. (Shows my cultural side, yeehaw!)

18. "Talk To Me," The Outfield.

19. "Journey to the Island (from Jurassic Park soundtrack)," John Williams.

20. "Delicate," Damien Rice. (What a perfect song to end on, one of my favorite songs in the whole world!)

Day 14- A picture of something you ate and 10 confessions.

Hmm...something I ate today? Sure, why not.

Yumm. I wasn't feeling great today, and Travis got home late. So, party pizza it was! Now, on to the confessions...

1. I love Party Pizza. I know it's really bad for you, but it just tastes so good and is so easy when we don't feel like cooking.

2. I have a stuffed bear from my childhood that I still sleep with sometimes. The poor thing is about 25 years old now, but she's still my Mary, and I love her! If I could pay someone to restore her to her original fluffiness and glow-in-the-darkness, I would TOTALLY do it.

3. I wish there were more hours in a day. I would love to have more time to sleep, or do crafty things, or read books, or even cook. This working full-time thing is really tough on me (I know, wah wah, I have a good job in a crappy economy, and I know it. But it's a confession, so no judging!)

4. I spend way too many of those hours on my Lego Harry Potter game. Yeah, whatever. It's fun. And I get 20x the coins, and achieve True Wizard in about 5 seconds. In your face.

5. I hate cleaning. Very often, I wish I was a person who cleaned to relieve stress, or relax. The state of my home stays the same for an extremely long time, either clean or dirty. When it's clean, I don't have to spend so much time cleaning. When dirty or cluttered, it also stays that way because I'm not willing to take the time to do anything about it.

6. I recently bought a Nook. I have a conflict quite often about this though, because I'm not sure how much I will actually use it, now that I have it. I love holding books and turning pages. But I love the portability of the Nook. Here's the confession I guess..I would love to have every book in both formats, digital and paper. I guess if I did that, I could almost single-handedly save the book business. Maybe.

7. I thought a couple of weeks ago that I might be pregnant. I took a pregnancy test, and I will admit I cried a little when it was negative. Turns out that I just have a virus that makes me nauseous and dizzy. And the medication I'm taking tends to make me SUPER tired. This doesn't help that I have two hours of driving every day to and from work...Anyway, I realized how much I would love to be pregnant. I know our lives will change forever once we have a baby, and we won't be able to go out as easily and life will be WAY more expensive. I know even my view of how hard it will be is extremely naive because I've never actually done it. But I think I'm ready for that challenge. Now, to get the insurance to be able to afford the pregnancy/baby... One of these days. :)

8. I love how British and Australian people say "condoms." 

9. We've lived in our apartment for like 7 months now, and still have spots on the walls where we never finished painting. We started the day we moved in.

10. My husband is way too nice to me sometimes. Right now, he is cleaning the kitchen while I sit here and blog. Part of that is because I get really dizzy when I stand up too much, but still. He's amazing. I guess that isn't really a confession. Oh well. :)

I'm making another attempt...

...at this 30-day challenge thing. (This is supposed to be Day 13- Write a letter telling someone something you could never tell them.) I have to admit that part of the reason I stopped this thing was because I didn't want to do this one. Hmm...I have a couple of letters I would like to write, but I don't really want the people I would write them to to read it. Sigh. Maybe I'll do this one and like 5 others after, so those certain people won't realize it's there? If you read this, and you will definitely know who you are, umm...sorry? We'll talk about it later?

Here goes:

'Dear so and so,

I'm very sad about what you did to our family. You made us and yourself miserable by making wrong choices from the start, and not working hard enough through the tough times. I still don't know all the details of the whole situation, and I think I'm ok with that, because the more I learn, the sadder I become. Life isn't a fantasy world. It's REALITY, and sometimes you just need to suck it up and get through. No one was ever supposed to come sweep you off your feet. Relationships are all about hard work and the rewards it brings. I know the main person you wronged has not been the greatest to the family either, sadly enough, but I am glad this person was able to find happiness with someone else. I still love you very much, this will never change. I appreciate so much everything you have done to love and support us, even with the crappy stuff in the background. That's all.

Love,
Gina'

Yep...I have some issues (obviously). That's why I'm glad to have a husband who listens to me and lets me cry and ramble and yell and get angry, or whatever it may be. Maybe my sister is right, I probably should go to therapy. When I have insurance to cover it, I'm definitely up for a little professional help!

Get ready folks...the wait is over...Alohamora! Lumos! Wahoo!!

Seriously, people. The coolest vacation ever. All of you who know anything about me, or have read my blog EVER, know that I am a Harry Potter fan. My sister and I started planning this vacation pretty much from the moment we heard the park was opening. I had some flight miles to use, and my brother in law has some SWEET connections for hotels, so we saved up, and away we went!

Our trip didn't have the best start, to be perfectly honest. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me tired and upset. Since we were using flight miles, we were at the mercy of the airline to put us wherever we could squeeze in. We were scheduled for two layovers. Leave Phoenix SUPER early, get to Los Angeles, stay for a few hours, fly to San Francisco, stay a couple more hours, and then finally fly to Orlando. Arrive there at 11 pm or so. Sound like fun? We didn't think so either. So, away we went. We got to LAX without a hitch. While we were waiting for our connecting flight to San Francisco, all of a sudden we heard the announcer say our flight number, and that it was cancelled. CANCELLED. Oh boy! So, after an EXTREMELY long day of waiting in line (6 hours or so due to wrong line choices and OTHER cancelled and delayed flights, not to mention short staffing on behalf of United), we were able to get a comped hotel room and a couple of meal vouchers. We still had to go through Washington, D.C. before we got to Orlando, but at least we got there without any problems (besides a little turbulence which Travis couldn't quite handle easily...). Wahoo!

So, we lost a day, but we weren't planning on doing a whole lot on Sunday anyway. My sister and bro in law went to Epcot Center, but we had decided we couldn't afford it, so not a super huge deal. Now, for the hotel we stayed in. This place was amazing...  1300 square feet (almost twice the size of our apartment), two bedrooms, and a common room (dining room, kitchenette and meeting area). This place had a golf course, tennis courts, spa, restaurants, you name it. It was a beautiful resort! And...I don't even remember the name of it. :)





So, on to the important stuff! I'll write more about the hotel later, because there were even more perks! But anyway...Monday was Harry Potter day!! Let me just say, this place was cooler than words can describe. When we walked in, I wanted to cry, laugh, and stay forever...I know I'm obsessed, but any level of Harry Potter fan would enjoy it. The rides were sweet, and seeing (and being in) Hogwarts castle was the coolest thing ever. The castle has the "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" ride, but as you walk through the line, you get to see so many awesome things! The line takes you through the Herbology greenhouses, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Dumbledore's office, and cool hallways with talking, moving portraits. You even get to see and hear the Sorting Hat! (Video later.) There were lots of cool shops (even though I wish more of them were real, not just store fronts) to buy Harry Potter merchandise. There is a post office deal, with tons of parcel boxes piled up and owls to deliver them (all fake, of course, but still awesome). They even have a wand choosing ceremony, even though only one person from a crowd of about 15 actually gets to do the wand choosing! I wanted to buy one of everything...They even had an issue of The Quibbler (complete with Spectre-specs)! I had pumpkin juice, butterbeer, cauldron cakes, and various Honeydukes candies. Yummy, people. I still have cravings for those cauldron cakes. Mmmm...


























So, that's the end of our journey to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I will admit, that after 2.5 days there, I definitely got teary eyed writing this post when we had to leave. I have even more pictures than this, believe it or not, that I am just saving to look at later. I want to remember everything I can. Even the scary mounted hog's head that would come to life every 5 minutes on the back wall of, well, the Hog's Head. Even though the rides made me a little sick and I never got to see the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students dance. Even though I didn't get picked for the wand choosing and couldn't afford everything I wanted to buy. I LOVE this place. I chose the picture above for the last one because as the place was closing up, we all just sat there and talked, while my sister and I admired everything. The crowds cleared out, and we sat taking pictures of the magical place. I think we both kinda knew that no other vacation could be this way...not that there aren't other fantastic places in the world, because there are. We just have a connection. We know these places and characters, and we know their stories. To see the stories come alive in ways we could actually experience was one-of-a-kind and I will never forget it. Call me what you want (nerd, obsessed, whatever), but I wouldn't trade this for anything!