While You Were Out
Posted by on July 31, 2011 1 Comment
Hey readers…are you still coming to my sadly neglected blog?
It’s summer, and I’ve had a lot of things going on that has pushed my blogging efforts out of my daily/weekly routine. I haven’t posted anything in the month of July, so I thought I’d put in a quick catch-up post for those who care to know how I’ve spent my time.
- •Working as an SEO specialist at SEO.com by day, and desperately trying to get back up to speed on my medical coding practicum. When I was hired 7 months ago, I threw myself into my new job and left a year of full-time study at 95% completion. I’m ready to get it done and official. I’m ready to earn some letters after my name. So forgive me as I’m busy switching between HTML and ICD-9/CPT/HCPCS and trying to speak English the rest of the time.
- •Visited my long-time bloggy friend April Durham on a weekend whim roadtrip. Rosie and I hopped in the car within 30 minutes of concocting the idea, and drove north for a weekend of giggles, good food, and blog design. She gave my site an awesome blog makeover. If you haven’t seen the new look of cuteculturechick.com, hop out of your RSS feed and take a looksie.
- •Attended Type A Parent Conference in Asheville, NC. I decided to go to a conference I hadn’t been to before, and decided on #TypeAcon when I found out so many of my friends were speaking. I got some great blogging and social media tips, met Greg “The Frozen Food Master,” chatted with some great brands, partied and dined.I enjoyed the beautiful and eclectic city of Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and knocked North Carolina off of my list of states to visit to see all 50. Oh, and I drank as much Cheerwine as I could get my hands on.
- •Acted as an ambassador for Visit Salt Lake‘s SLC Summer Crew
- •Summertime tends to be difficult emotionally for me, and thankfully this year it hasn’t been quite as depressive as the past few years. I’ve been trying to living a more healthy lifestyle…trying to be more active, eat better, and lose weight (as always). I might not look a lot different, but my hair is getting pretty long
- Next week I head to southern California to see family and attend BlogHer ’11. Later in the month I’ll be going on a white water rafting trip hosted by my company. Rosie’s going to be starting 5th grade (!!!) I hope to be ready to take the final exam and national certification exam for my medical coding.
- How have you been spending your summer?
Phony McPhonerton
Posted by on August 3, 2010 6 Comments
Tomorrow (or tonight, or Thursday, who knows?) I’m leaving for New York City. I’m headed to the BlogHer Conference, which I’ve been excited about for MONTHS. Excited but anxious. I’ve read other bloggers’ accounts of their past experiences at the BlogHer concerences, and it seems like it could be a fine combination of awkward, awful, and awesome. I’m excited about the people I’m rooming with. I’m excited to be volunteering. I’m excited for the parties. I’m excited to meet my online friends in person, and reconnect with others I’ve previously met. But I’m worried…I feel like a bit of a phony. A self-proclaimed “blogger” who hasn’t even updated her site in over a month.
It’s been a crazy summer. Between Rosie’s rehearsals and performances in “The Music Man,” Taylor’s commute, and my school, I’ve managed to keep myself very busy. I am frustrated that school is taking so long, and was hoping to be working by now. I was really hoping to be off to NYC with a little more cash in my pocket. I’ve seriously considered not going. It’s hard to go to a big, expensive, unfamiliar place like New York without means to recover from a possible travel disaster. Some plans have already fallen through, partially due to my anxiety-ridden procrastination. As I write this, I’m still scrambling for a place to stay Wednesday night. I could plan on taking the Wednesday night red-eye from SLC…but if I miss the flight I’m hosed. Maybe I’ll try staying with another friend in an east coast city, then hop over to NYC Thursday morning. Who knows?
It’s times like these that I feel like a Phony McPhonerton. What happened to the confident, spontaneous, and blogging Nicole I usually am?
Losing My License and My Mind in Phoenix
Posted by on May 4, 2010 18 Comments
Why Me?
This weekend was awesome. But it almost wasn’t.
Back on my 30th birthday, Taylor’s gift to me was a verbal promise for a one-day ticket to the Coachella Music Festival. But the ticketing guidelines changed this year, and only $270 full weekend passes were available. When my Coachella plans fell through, he told me to find something else I was passionate about attending, and to use the money for that ticket. I promptly signed up for Bloggy Boot Camp in Phoenix.
The thing is…a $99 registration fee doesn’t include all the other stuff (meals, transportation, etc) Detail after detail miraculously fell into place over the next 2 months, and I was ready for an exciting weekend at a Scottsdale resort. Miracle of miracles, I got on the standby flight from SLC to PHX at the last second (after arriving at the airport and breezing through security with 27 minutes till departure).
When I arrived at the gate at PHX, I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket to reply to a few tweets, and my drivers license was stuck to the phone. I’m quite diligent about returning my ID to my wallet after security…since everything seems to get jumbled up in my purse and pockets when I travel. But I thought, “I’m gonna be renting my car in a few minutes, I’ll just leave it my my pocket.” After a ridiculous criss-crossing of Terminal 3 (because the “Ground Transportation” signs don’t mean “Car Rental Shuttle”), I hopped on the bus. Immediately, the bus driver announced that Vice President Joe Biden’s private plane was about to land, and all ground and air traffic was halted. I was frustrated, but what can you do? 30 minutes later, I arrived at the PHX Airport Car Rental Center (several miles from the terminal). I flew off the bus, ran to the rental counter, pulled out my wallet, and my drivers license wasn’t in there. I panicked for a half-second before realizing that I’d left my license in my pocket. I pulled out a wad of boarding passes, receipts, and candy wrappers….but no license.
I talked to the rental car agent. I had my hole-punched Georgia drivers license on me, and explained that I’d lost my Utah license. He said ‘We aren’t authorized to rent without a valid license, but I can recommend some off-airport locations that will let you rent without ID for an additional fee”. (WTF?) I hurredly ran through the rental car building…no licenses on the floor. I ran toward the shuttle I’d just been on….no license. I even checked shuttles I didn’t ride on (I know that there’d be no chance of another shuttle, but I FELT like it would help) Each minute that passed, I felt more upset and neurotic. Without a license I couldn’t rent a car, nor could I pass through security for my return flight. I was praying for spontaneous Xanax to appear in my hand.
I took the shuttle back to the terminal. I walked up and down all the areas that security would permit me. I talked to ticket counter agents, TSA agents, custodians, tourists, anyone that might have had their eyes on the floor to notice my smiling face on a piece of rectangular plastic. My phone was almost dead, so I plopped down on the ground at an outlet next to the baggage carousel. I plugged in my phone and began to sob a jagged prayer in a heap on the floor.
Within two minutes, an airport employee walked up to me and asked, “Are you Nicole?” I knew this kind soul was a direct answer to a prayer I’d just uttered. I stumbled up on my feet, gave her a gigantic bear hug, and blubbered out the best words of appreciation I could mutter. A passenger had seen the license on the ground, but the airport Lost and Found had already closed for the day. The one who found it turned it in to this girl who worked for airport catering. She was almost off shift, and wandered around for an hour looking for me. Even after she’d clocked out of her shift…she knew if she kept looking for me, I’d be there.
After composing myself, I took the shuttle back to the rental car center to pick up my car. Because I was paying with a debit card, they had to take out a $250 deposit (which I was anticipating)…but then they said I had to have proof on paper of my return flight. Back I went to the terminal to have a Delta agent list me for the Sunday return flight, and once again to the rental car center. Three hours after my flight landed, I was in my rental car headed for Scottsdale. I had barely eaten anything during the day, and was ravenous after 6 hours since my last meal. I stopped at a Chick-Fil-A, got my dinner, and my BELOVED PEACH MILKSHAKE.
20 minutes later, I checked into my room, flopped on my bed, and stared at the ceiling for a bit. I knew a bunch of ladies were eating at the restaurant on site, and I didn’t want to miss out. Luckily, I LOOKED better than I FELT at that point…so I joined the girls for some mixing and mingling. As soon as I saw my roomie Adrian, I burst into spontaneous tears again. But within moments, I was showered with hugs and love and everything started to feel right. I knew I was going to have a blast at Bloggy Boot Camp.
And soon I’ll tell you all about it.
FourSquare Cheater Rant
Posted by on March 14, 2010 20 Comments
One of my favorite iPhone apps is FourSquare, aka #Foursquare and #4sq on Twitter. FourSquare is a location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices, and a game. Registered users can update their location and connect with friends via mobile application (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Palm, etc). FourSquare gives you the option to connect to Facebook and Twitter to share your checkins as you choose to. It’s a great way to see where your friends are, get ideas on places to eat, and highlight local businesses.
Points and incentive badges are awarded for adding new venues, checking in with a certain frequency, or for visiting a specific venue a designated amount of times. When a user has checked in more times at a specific venue than any other user, they will be crowned “mayor.”
When you have a suggestion that other visitors might enjoy at the venue, pay it forward and post a tip. You may save someone a really awful meal/experience by giving them the heads-up.
I have to admit that FourSquare can get very addicting. I started “playing” at the end of January, and I was one of only two “players” in Spanish Fork. The southern Utah County area was barely touched with places to check in, and I racked up points like crazy going to all the places I frequent. One problem is that there are no firm/established guidelines or rules for Foursquare use, and it would be helpful if new users were given some type of etiquette tutorial. The etiquette for FourSquare use seems to be constantly evolving. Unfortunately, as anything gains momentum and becomes popular, people are going to start cheating. Within the past 5 days, I’ve gone from 31 mayorships to 14, due to two particular local newbie cheaters. Can you guess who?
Is it really worth your integrity to cheat on a social networking game? Why knock off the rightful mayors, who actually support local businesses, with driveby checkins at places you don’t even frequent? The two particular cheaters have already put in 50+ checkins in 4 days, and are threatening to oust me from the rest of my local spots. Why would someone want to be the mayor of a physical therapy office, if they’ve never had an injury? What’s the street cred (other than drug seeker) in having twice-daily stops at a pharmacy? What’s the worth in checking in at a library when they aren’t even open on Sundays? Most of my frequent stops in town know me by name, appreciate my business, read the reviews I’ve written on my blog, and smile when I walk in their store. I’m a competitive person, and this game is right up my alley, but I’m not willing to cheat to stay on top.
A personal word to cheaters: If you REALLY want to rack up mayorships and points, add your own venues. Don’t steal the mayorships that are valid and earned honestly? You get +5 points for every place you add. Sure, it’s easy to open the app, punch in rapid-fire driveby checkins, and hurt feelings. But also…once you’ve ousted me, I’ve got your info. I have a personal contact at FourSquare that has asked me to tattle on the local newbie cheaters. Once you show a series of invalid checkins, you WILL be banned. And what fun is that?
To all the FourSquare Cheaters out there…this badge is for you:
Skymall Birthday Wishlist
Posted by on January 19, 2010 2 Comments
I love to shop, but not in the traditional “Let’s go to the mall and have a girly shopping spree heyday” kind of shopping. As soon as I was old enough to help my mom clip coupons, I gained mad discount bargain shopping skills. I am true to my brand loyalties, despite buying most of my stuff at discount retailers and thrift stores. Growing up, I was a sucker for the “As Seen On TV” commercial products (I still am, if the recently acquired SlapChop in my cupboard is any indication). I’ve been shopping online since the late 1990′s, and get better prices on the things I do buy that way. Although I don’t do much shopping from catalogs, I have had a longtime guilty pleasure obsession with SkyMall Magazine.
Nothing produces a case of the “Gimmes” more than Skymall. It’s a brilliant airline marketing tactic…fill 136 pages with exciting and unique products, and provide each passenger with a copy at arm’s length. I usually ban myself from even pulling the magazine out of my seatback pocket, knowing that I will launch into greedy materialistic consumer mode before I hit 10,000′ altitude. But on my flight back from Memphis this weekend, I indulged in a little SkyMall fantasizing. In honor of my upcoming 30th birthday (in 17 days), here is my Skymall wishlist:
Magellan Aluminum Wallet $29.95
I’ve never actually purchased something directly through Skymall, but I have found the items on eBay and purchased them for much less (I still don’t know why people pay $30 for an iPod charger when you can get one for less than $3 on eBay…) If these gifts are out of your price range, you can also check out my Amazon Wishlist…and I say this in the least greedy, “I’ll still be your friend regardless of the gift” voice possible. I like presents, but I like friends more. Stay tuned for details on my upcoming 30th birthday bash on February 5th…
Just for fun…comment and tell me what your SkyMall obsession items!
Sneak Peek at How My Weekend Started
Posted by on January 15, 2010 5 Comments
Sleeping at SLC gate C09
(Yep! I Even Brought my CPAP!)
CALoween 2009
Posted by on November 9, 2009 2 Comments
There’s something really nice about celebrating Halloween in a place where it’s warm. All growing up, I remember Halloween night being bundled up in parkas or raincoats, covering up my costume….coming home with a bag of soggy candy. For the two years I lived in California, I decided that I preferred warm, sunny Halloweens. We went last year while living in Michigan, and had a great time trick-or-treating through La Verne. When Rosie had a day off school last Friday, I decided to get in a little family and friend time in California.
I pulled Rosie out of school a little early on Wednesday. We drove up to SLC, parked our car, went through security, and made it to our gate just as the plane was boarding. We were assigned seats together, and the flight was just long enough to finish my Entertainment Weekly, drink my Coke Zero, and browse some of the Delta entrainment options. We arrived at LAX around 4:00 pm, and hoped to zoom up the 405 before traffic got too congested. Unfortunately, I went with a super-cheap car rental company, and it took almost 40 minutes for the shuttle to pick us up. At least we had a good view.
I had a handful of problems with our rental car company. First, I’d rented an “intermediate” vehicle…and they wanted to give me a PT Cruiser (my least favorite car to rent, usually rated as an economy or compact) I knew I’d be doing a lot of driving over the weekend, and said I’d wait a few minutes to see if a car I liked better was turned in. A Toyota Matrix drove in, and I was happy with that car. About 35 minutes later, and after an argument over my method of payment (strange online reservation didn’t run my card correctly), I pulled out of the rental agency nearly 90 minutes after landing. By then, it was too trafficky to get on the freeway. 
We went to the Trader Joe’s on Sepulveda to pick up $14 of groceries to avoid eating out for most of the trip. Rosie got her California Rolls and mini merengue cookies, and I got my 4-cheese sourdough bread, Popchips, and Sweet Savory and Tart Trek Mix. We drove over to Dockweiller beach just as the sun was setting. We snapped a few pictures and ate some sushi at the beach.
When we got back in the car, the center console of the car had blown a fuse: no radio, clock, A/C power, etc. There was NO way I’d be able to handle a trip without a way to charge my phone on the road, let alone have no access to the radio. We went back into the rental car agency, explained the problems, and waited for them to figure out what to do with me. They said I could pay extra to get a nicer car…I said that was unacceptable. I talked to the manager, and he eventually let me WAIT for another Toyota Matrix to get vaccummed out and ready to rent. As soon as I got in the car and reached for the seatbelt, the plastic casing for the door frame snapped off! I went back to the rental agent, told him I was fine with the broken doorframe, but I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be charged for the damage. 3.5 hours after we landed at LAX, we were finally on the 405 up to Palmdale.
We stayed with my blogger friend Heather (aka Hizzeather). We’ve been friends online for a year, but only had met in person one other time at her wedding reception. It was so nice to finally have some quality bonding time with her. Between our blogs and Facebook, I feel like we know each other quite well…but it all comes together when you stay up till 2 am in your silly PJs, eating junk food, watching “The Office,” and gossiping about scandalous blogs.
In the morning, Heather’s husband Cody made us some delicious pumpkin pancakes. The we played some games on the Wii, and I have to admit it was nice to play games other than Wii Sports 
Heather and Cody were preparing for their ward Halloween party, so Rosie and I left Palmdale in the early afternoon. We didn’t have anything planned until the evening at our former ward’s Halloween party, so we had some time to kill. I got some advisement from Cybele at Candy Blog for the best places in the San Gabriel Valley to get Japanese candy. First we went to Pasadena, where we picked up a couple things at Japanese-style combini Famina!. We continued down Colorado to Federico’s Bakery. I was introduced to their marzipan princess cake by my dear Lizzie, and no trip to Pasadena is complete without this slice of heaven. 
Next, we drove into San Gabriel to Mitsuwa Marketplace. I was pleased to find their sizeable assortment of Japanese candy at a reasonable price. I picked up several hard-to-find flavors of Hi-Chew, Ramune and Mango KitKats, gummies, Pocky, and fizzy candies. I look forward to reviewing these on my other blog, Nicole Rates It. 
We spent a little too much time candy shopping, because by the time we reached the freeway it was well into Friday traffic. It took about 75 minutes to get from Pasadena to La Verne. By the end of the drive, we were a little stir crazy.
We immediately raided my mother-in-law’s costume stash, and headed to the ward halloween party. Baked potato bar, costume contest, indoor trick-or-treating to the decorated classrooms, and catching up with old friends and ward members.
Pretty kitty and sinister villain ( Me and my brother-in-law Nathan)
Nathan the Villain and Sophisticated Dayna won 2nd and 1st places in the costume contest
I was so tired by the time the party was over, I could barely make it back to my in-law’s couch to sleep (I was running on about 3 hours sleep). In the morning, I met up with Liz for breakfast at Coco’s (sadly, no pictures). I had pumpkin pancakes again….delicious! I then ran a few errands, and then took Rosie and Nevaeh to meet up for tea in San Dimas with our friend Kevin.
After tea, we went back and prepared for the Halloween festivities. Neither Rosie nor Nevaeh were satisfied wearing the same costume trick-or-treating that they wore to the ward party. They dug up some bobby-soxer costumes and modeled them for some pics.
When Taylor’s sister Janelle made it to LV, we drove over to Lissy and Tyler’s to get the twins ready for trick or treating. Eleanor made some adorable witch costumes, that could only possibly have been cuter if they’d kept the witch hats on.
Sarah, Rosie, Phoebe, Nevaeh – the 4 cousins
We went trick-or-treating in some of the finer spots in Pomona, including the liquor store and the dollar store. 
Fearing for our safety, we collected candy in a residential neighborhood till the twins were exhausted. Afterward, we went back to have some homemade apples cider and sort through the candy treasures.
The last spot for festivities was in Burbank. I met up for dessert with my fellow Keaneheads Elizabeth and Kathryn. I had an assortment of fresh sorbets (lime, tangerine, blackberry) and the others ate decadent chocolate souffle. Rosie said it was the best dessert she’d ever had (and it should have been good….the price wasn’t on the menu and it ended up being $10!) They couldn’t stay long because they were off to a big mid-Singles party. We said our goodbyes and I drove to our amazingly cheap $27 3-star Priceline hotel.
With the daylight savings change, my alarm went off earlier than I’d expected. I was wide awake, and figured I’d just check out and get to the airport. We had planned on the 7:15 flight back to SLC, but made it on the 6:05 am flight just as they were closing the doors. We arrived back in SLC just in time to zoom down to Spanish Fork for church.
Rexburg Redux
Posted by on October 26, 2009 1 Comment
After being back from London for only one day, Rosie and I roadtripped up to Rexburg, ID. Rosie was feeling left out because we didn’t bring her to London, so I promised her we’d do something fun over fall break. I’ve wanted to drive up and see my sister Mary at BYU-Idaho since she started last year, and now she’s in her last semester. We dropped Taylor off in SLC, drove on the Legacy Parkway for the first time, and headed north on I-15 Wednesday afternoon. I made my two usual stops…gas at the Flying J in Willard, and dinner at Jack in the Box in Pocatello. We arrived in the ‘Burg around 8:30 pm.
Mary, Monica, Rosie and I got frozen custard a BRC’s
It was fun to share college stories with Rosie. She said she already knows she wants to go to BYUI. She is interested in the nursing program, but let’s see what she says in 9 years when it’s time to declare a major.
I had fun getting to know Mary’s roommates, and as this picture attests…they were very sad to see me leave. We had fun stalking people on Facebook…like an old boyfriend of mine, whose brother is friends with Mary’s roommate. Small world.
This was my first time to Rexburg since the temple was dedicated. When driving into town at night, it looks like the temple is floating about of town. It would have been nice to have this available when I was a student, but I do have fun memories of Idaho Falls temple trips with my student ward. My favorite diner from back then is now a hot tub store, and the Retrix dance club is now a home decorating store. There’s loads of new married student housing, many more restaurants, a movie theater, and a lot more students. There are several more buildings on campus…and the Manwaring Center just opened a gorgeous new cafeteria. I went to Foundations of Light and Sound with Mary, pretending to be a student (also to have internet access, since it was blocked from Mary’s apartment for guests.
We participated in some Walmart hijinks until the store employee reprimanded us
Mary made us some stellar banana Nutella crepes
After class on Friday, we went into Idaho Falls. Weshopped for a few hours at the Grand Teton Mall. I found a new dress, which was much needed at Dillards. Rosie had fun posing in the rides for silly pictures. She got to visit with some cousins while Mary and I met Taylor’s cousing Kylie at Craigo’s back in Rexburg. We returned to SLC on Saturday morning in time to attend a funeral and a wedding.
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