P.S.

#1- it was really fun having my family here!

#2- i got an early christmas present: my daddy bought me a plane ticket to come out and visit them on their mission in NAUVOO, IL... so that's where i will be for christmas this year!

#3- susan helped get me started on my family history this past week and i am super stoked to get going.

#4- thank you for talking to me and reminding me that i still have strengths even when i am looking head-on into the weaknesses. that meant a lot. sorry if the conversation was a little weird too. (you know who you are)

#5- i love my friends

AFTER A LONG WEEK


life is good, funny, interesting, weird, scary, frustrating, challenging, exhilarating, happy... all of the above... and that was just this past week!

you know how there are those weeks where everything races by and you find yourself saying, "wow, i can't believe it's already friday!" and then there are those weeks, where every day is long and has too much in it and it feels like you've just lived for 14 years in one week?

yeah, well i just got back from my 14 year long travels and i am beat!

it's not that it was a bad or good week. i think there were enough ups and downs throughout the week that i wouldn't try to label it but so many interesting things happened and now i'm sitting here in my pile of newly acquired knowledge wondering what in the world i do with all of it.

for fear that i am speaking too abstractly, let me give you an example of one of the things that has been on my mind for the past few days.

how does one know when one is progressing in a way that is good or right? i've been reading the book, THE ALCHEMIST and in it the shepard boy is left to wonder if just being a shepard boy is good enough for his life. the man who comes to befriend the shepard and sends him on his life's journey, uses the local butcher as an example. the butcher is happy, well-to-do and life seems good for him, yet when that man was a boy he dreamed of traveling but decided to put off his travels a few years just to save some money. before long the butcher had settled in his life; all thoughts of traveling were distant dreams.

but what if just being a butcher or a shepard IS good enough??? how does one know if they have settled in life or if they are really fulfilling their purpose on this earth?

thankfully, i have faith in a Father in Heaven who not only loves me but also knows my plan and has a specific purpose for me. but this is where fear begins to settle in... how do i know for sure that i am filling the measure of my life?

does anyone else ever get scared that they have just settled in what they are doing and that there is so much more they could be doing but aren't? have any of you dreamed of places you'll never go because you are too caught up in the day to day to ever give it a shot? or you put too much priority on things that don't matter and end up distracted from the things of utmost importance?

sometimes i get scared that i will wake up one day and wonder what in the world i did with my life and if i ever made a difference. i worry that my weaknesses keep me from truly obtaining the things i want most. i try not to get too hard on myself when i make a mistake and i try even harder not to let others make me feel bad about those mistakes either... like the old adage says: we grow from our mistakes. and i do believe that. but sometimes those mistakes feel like i'm stuck in the mud rather than being momentum... and that's where it gets tricky!

i've been wondering lately if it's time for a move. not that i have any place specific in mind or that i really even want to move (i love boston and my life here) but what if it's just time for me to open a new door, a new chapter? what if it's time to wake myself up from the life that is so familiar to me and see what else is out there?

yeah, this is just one of the many things that has been on my mind lately.

life is good, funny, interesting, weird, scary, frustrating, challenging, exhilarating, happy... and that's just this past week!

YAY FOR FAMILY!!!


so i am so WAY excited because my sister and my nephew are coming to visit me tomorrow!!!

in preparing for their arrival i started to think about my cute/weird family and all of a sudden i began to cry. two reasons:

I LOVE MY FAMILY
I AM HOMESICK

part of the reason the feeling was so strong is that i am trying to come to grips with the reality that i may not be able to afford to see my family this christmas... and the thought is breaking my heart. it's possible that i may go and see my parents in NAUVOO, IL where they are serving their LDS MISSION... but that may not happen either. it would be the first time EVER that i would be alone on christmas. how weird.

anyway... i just can't wait to have my family close to me. i love how susan and i laugh together. and ben... well he's ben. he's one of those cool dudes that doesn't have tons to say but laughs at everything i do and say (cause i'm a weirdo)... and he should laugh... after all i changed the dudes diapers... he owes me something!

YAY for family being here!!! it's gonna be a GREAT week!

64 IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER



okay, so when i started this little blog, i didn't care much if people read the stupid thing. i was just writing for writing's sake. and truly, that's really the only reason i still do. i'm not in blog-land for fame, because we all know that i lack the kind of flair or technical writing skills that would make those "blog snobs" perk up and take notice. and really, i'm okay with that... i don't need to be a fantastic writer, cause i do this for fun and it's a way to vent out my frustrations and a way to tell my dumb stories... all fine and good!

but here's what i have issues with. so you know how you can click on to "my profile" and everyone can see how many people have visited your blog and such???

WELL MINE'S BROKEN AND IT MAKES ME SO SAD!!!

how do i know this? how do i know that even though i know there have been more than 64 people view my site, it still shows that there have only been 64 people view my site? AND because i was so worried about it and neurotic, i had a friend test it for me... and i am still at 64!!!

now really... 64 isn't a bad number... 64 is great. like 64 chocolate sundaes sounds really good, or 64 dollars, i could use an extra 64 dollars.

but somewhere along the blogging path, i let the number 64 eat away at my blogging self esteem and make me self conscious that no one out there cares... DUH! how did i get to this point? when i first started writing, i only showed 6 people. they were family and really close friends... the end... and i didn't ever care if there were more. then i got going and found that some of the things i write would be fun to share with others, and i have slowly let you all in. and because of that, i have now started checking the total number of visitors... and all of a sudden, i care that it only shows 64 people have looked at it... and i just can't handle that.

WHY... WHY DO I CARE SO MUCH???!!! IT SHOULDN'T MATTER... BUT IT DOES! WAAAHHHH!

i mean, i have ACTUALLY planned the letter i am going to send the blogspot dudes to ask them to fix it.... REALLY PEGGY? IT MEANS THAT MUCH TO YOU???

YESSSSS!!!!

i know, and i can't help it. i should be happy with the fact that people have actually commented, or when i'm at church someone brings up one of my posts or when i don't write for a while, i get an email yelling at me for not posting... heck, i even have a friend who prints out my posts so she can read them on the T as her entertainment... so why isn't all of that good enough?

64... what's in a number anyway?

SO FAST, SO FURIOUS


be it known to all the world: i HATE taxi cabs.

wait peg, calm down and don't be so dramatic... hate is such a strong word

NO... there you are wrong! HATE is actually a great way to describe my feelings toward taxis and their drivers... LOATHE... now that would be dramatic!!! no, for real dudes...

i H...A...T...E driving on the same road as taxis... i want to abolish them all, throw tacks in their tires... smash my already ugly car into them. okay now i'm getting dramatic. but let's be honest people, not only are taxi drivers rude, but they are horrible drivers.

because of my "quasi soccer mom" profession, i am on the road about 60-75% of my day. i am driving kids to and from school, tennis, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, music, the library, hair cuts, doctor's appointments... and lest we forget our fun boston adventures. and on these lovely outings i am constantly dodging and swerving past taxis... getting cut off by them, getting slowed down by them, occasionally getting a lovely middle finger thrown at me. i risk my life and the life of all of the kids that enter my car just by sharing gravel with these insane drivers... enough is enough. i'm done with them... i am fed up... i am furious.

so, when the story i'm about to share with you happened, i was filled with a sense of VICOTRY that has made my entire week.

we begin our lovely little tale of adventure on a late (or really really early morning depending on how you look at it) saturday evening, i was just getting off of work... meaing the parents had gone out that evening and i was babysitting til 1am. the road should be nice and clear which makes me happy because that cuts down my drive time from 25-ish minutes to about 15 and i SO wanted to get home and get into bed!

start your engines people and please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times:

i passed beth israel hospital in a breeze... only to get cut off by 3 taxis on boylston, just in front of fenway park. the first one was in the left lane and did a quick cut to get into the gas station on the right side of the road. the second one who was put-putting along in front of me, unexpectedly slammed on its breaks to pick up a couple coming out of a bar. and the third and final moron was coming up the other direction, saw some people trying to flag down a cab, did a HUGE, ILLEGAL u-turn right in front of me causing me to slam on my breaks or die and screeched to a stop just in time to get the people before another taxi could get to them. these guys were out for blood!

nevertheless, i was still making good time, even if i wasn't going to get home alive, at least i would do it sooner rather than later. so i jump onto storrow drive and now i'm really cooking. 60 miles per hour and i'm feeling fine... wait a minute... what do i see? NOOOOO!!!! BRAKE LIGHTS AHEAD!!!! ahhh man... i thought they finished THE BIG DIG.... crap... it's now 1:15 and i really, really want my bed. it's stinking one a.m. people and i am stuck in traffic. and looking around it's me and about 80 taxis with a few other cars, trucks and vans all peppered in there... just for variety. but truly it looks like chaos because all of these taxis are cutting people off and honking and yelling to push their way past everyone else... ugh I HATE ALL OF YOU!

i FINALLY make my way OUT of the dumb backed-up traffic and reach the mcgrath highway. okay, so now i should really be getting somewhere. i finally get to the stop light near the superior nut company, the final stretch, and i am getting so antsy. the light turns green and i begin to speed along. but wait... what is all of this. i notice that there are 3 taxis speeding along, cutting each other off and changing lanes abruptly to get ahead... and driving way too fast along the curvy road. it started to freak me out that i was behind them. if they crashed there would be nowhere for me to go and i would be a part of this mayhem. so at one point i see my chance and i make a break for it... speeding right past all three cabs. phew, now at least if they crash they will be in my dust trail and i won't have to worry about getting killed. but then i look into my rearview mirror and see all three cabs closing the distance and STILL cutting each other off and now we are approaching the highland ave turn off.

for those who have never seen the highland ave turn off from mcgrath, let me do my best to explain. mcgrath eventually comes to a Y in the road. you can either stay to the right to stay on mcgrath OR you can turn at the light to the left and be taken to another Y (very very soon after the light) where if you go to the right you will be on medford street and if you go to the left you will be on highland. at the first light (the one turing off mcgrath) there are two turn lanes... ideally, if you want to go to medford you are in the right turn lane and so forth... however, i have seen many a people get in the right turn lane, only to cut the people off in the left lane to get onto highland. jerks. okay, honestly... i've done it before.

now, it has been my experience with taxis, that they like to drag highland ave looking for potential customers coming home from a bar... however, so that they can see the "meat" they drive EXTRA slow... and i just was NOT in the mood to be stuck behind a slow cab because now it's 1:30 and i REALLY want to kill someone.

so there we were, at the light and i'm in the left lane... ready to turn off onto highland. i look to my right and see rude taxi man, inching his way forward, just a bit. i squint my eyes like dirty harry. i know what you're up to rude taxi man and don't go thinking your gonna get away with it either. i slowly slide my right hand down to the gear shift, click the over-drive button off (i LOVE this feature of my car), slide my hand back up to its original position on the steering wheel and tighten my grip. my foot comes off the brake, just a little and i inch forward... just to let the guy know that i'm not letting him get through... then apply the brake. then he inches forward... as if to test me. OH, it's on dude... BRING IT! i clinch my jaw, tighten my grip even more and begin to focus on the other lights... once the lights for the other direction turn yellow i begin to get my foot ready. i can hear my heart beating and a little bead of sweat trickles down my brow.

on your mark... get set... GREEN LIGHT and i peel off like i've never before. my car jolts forward and all of my papers in the front console spill to the ground. the smell of burnt rubber is in my nostrils now. i look to my right, rude taxi man is almost head to head with me... but i beat him off the line, so my nose is slightly ahead of his. then comes the Y and rude taxi man has no choice... he slams on his brakes and makes a quick cut behind me...

YES!!!!

i can hear the crowds cheering. I WON... I BEAT RUDE TAXI MAN... VICTORY IS MINE. I AM THE CHAMPION MY FRIENDS... AND I'LL KEEP ON FIGHTING, TIL THE END!

and what made that moment even more blissful is that rude taxi man got stopped by the next light that turned red just as he approached the line.

off i zoomed... to home... to freedom!

i know that i will never be able to rid the world of all the rude taxi men out there. but this one victory is all i needed to keep me from going postal, for just a few more days anyway.

HOLIDAY SPECIALS




yeah, admittedly, i'm a dork. i LOVE to collect cartoons and movies that i loved and adored as a child. shows that evoked excitement in an upcoming holiday event. it usually started with HALLOWEEN...

does anyone else remember GARFIELD's halloween special? gimme, gimme, gimme! yeah... that rocks. what about those of you who had the disney channel... every year they played this halloween show with a man dressed up as the mirror from snow white and he lead us through some of disney's scariest and funniest halloween cartoons. my favorite was the one with donald duck and the witch and she puts a spell on his feet to get at his candy. please tell me there is someone else out there that remembers that one! and who could possibly forget CHARLIE BROWN's great pumpkin... every year i had hopes that linus would stop being dumb by waiting in the pumpkin patch for the great pumpkin and actually go out trick or treating... but he never did (sigh) and it always broke my heart that charlie brown always got rocks in his bag... it was so unjust. a little later in my childhood the SIMPSON's came a rollin' around and introduced some of the best halloween episodes EVER. some of my favorites include: the monkey's paw, the shining and the alien invasion. no beer and no t.v. make homer go something, something.

moving along: THANKSGIVING. to be honest with you, i don't remember specific shows that came from this holiday... but i do have very fond memories of watching the MACY's parade and ooohhhing and awwwing over the large balloons and the cool floats (i went in live person a few years back... pretty awesome). plus there always seemed to be a good college football game on and it was fun to sit with my dad and brother to yell at the tv when a bad play was called. COME ON REF... GET SOME GLASSES... THAT WAS TOTALLY HOLDING!!! also, in my family my mom always made us watch PLANES, TRAINS and AUTOMOBILES, which isn't totally thanksgiving-ish... but since he's trying to make it home for said holiday, we bought into it. and EVERY YEAR... we'd sit back and wait as the soft music would chime in and neil page and his wife were finally reunited and without question, my mom would be tearing up and we'd all laugh at her... aww she is so cute.

YAY for CHRISTMAS... chalk full of FANTASTIC holiday movies, music and television cheer. i'd be here all night if i listed off ALL of the memories and favorites... instead i will just give y'all a list and let you walk down memory lane yourself. but first, i have to share with you one of the best holiday songs and why... MERRY CHRISTMAS DARLING by the carpenters.

picture with me... i'm all bundled up in my lavender snow suit stuffed into the back of the magenta station wagon. there's frost on the window and i can smell the mint from the candy cane that amy jo is eating and that musty smell that comes from wet boots on polyester flooring. every year the family at the end of our street ties a huge plastic santa clause and his reindeer up so it looks like they are flying up to the roof and it seemed like every time we passed the lit up figures my stomach would churn with excitement. as we're pulling into the parking lot of the southtowne mall i can hear... "merry christmas darling... happy new year too... i've just one wish on this holiday... i'm christmasing with you..." karen's smooth alto voice is dancing around my ears and i look up at the big brown building of ZCMI and see the large christmas wreath with the huge red bow attached, stationed just above the doors to the entrance. i'm about to go see santa clause at the mall... and i'm excited and nervous... but this song will forever imprint these feelings on my heart. yay christmas... yay carpenters.

okay so finally to my list. i must say... there are some on the list you may not know... somehow my family is really into obscure movies and things... but no matter... it's my childhood and this is my blog... so get over it!


First, ALL of the CLAYMATION CHRISTMAS SPECIALS
frosty the snowman
rudolph the red nosed reindeer
santa clause is coming to town
the year without santa
the little drummer boy

Then:
it's a wonderful life
white christmas
charlie brown's christmas
mickey's christmas carol
the nutcracker with mikhail baryshnikov (shown on PBS)
a christmas carol
santa clause the movie (does anyone remember that one with john lithgow)
california raisins christmas special (i get made fun of all the time for telling people about this one... but it is hysterical... even as an adult i love it... so don't judge before you try it)
mr kreuger's christmas
national lampoon's christmas vacation
a christmas story
a very brady christmas



i know there are more... but i am too tired to continue with the list... so make one of your own and send it my way. thanks for letting me indulge in some of these great memories.

A RANDOM-FILLED THOUGHT PROCESS


i'm supposed to be studying for my mid-term which is tomorrow morning at 9... but i'm not. i'm in bed with my computer resting on my lap, listening to my roommate workout to whatizface lead her in ab exercises, the thumping of the cheesy techno music that is supposed to evoke inspiration not vomiting is making it's way into my room through my thin wall. i look down at my toenails that used to be a perfectly, shiny red... all trimmed and buffed and cute... now i can see that one of the nails has decided to beat everyone else in the race to be longest and is in desperate need of a file... the red is now chipped a little here and there... sad, they're just not as cute as they used to be.

my window is slightly open, which makes me happy because every once in a while i can feel a small gust of cold air and with my feet tucked deep under the covers i am so cozy it's sick.

speaking of bed... i LOVE my sheets... 600 thread count egyptian cotton... sliding under the sheets feels like melting in butter.

smile.

i'm in the mood to be quiet... too bad for the techno... but oh well, i will just have to make due... too bad for that gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach because i realize that i will probably FAIL my midterm tomorrow because i have been so unfocused this semester and i haven't put the kind of time in to studying or caring that would warrant me getting a good grade.

did i really just hear whatizface say "you're looking good!"... how does he know if my roommate is looking good??? is that like one of those scary movies where the guy in the TV screen says stuff like "i like your purple shirt jenny." and then jenny does a double take just in time to see the creepy guy come out of the screen with a big kitchen knife to kill her. does my roommate REALLY need to have the volume anyway?

i just got done reading the princess bride and i really liked it. of course i had seen the movie but it was awesome to read the book... just found out that morgenstern is fictional... who knew... how clever.

i'm so tired right now... it's tempting to just go to bed and not study. who knows...

TO REALLY LOVE A WOMAN


a while ago, a friend of mine told me that while she was at her boyfriend's house, his roommate "pointed out" to her that she had "relief society arms" and even wanted her to show everyone in the room!!! EXCUSE ME???

(if you are asking yourself what rs arms are... think a very horrible term for the back of a woman's arm... if there is extra fat or skin there... which by the way... my friend SO DOES NOT HAVE!!!)

i don't think that i have been that livid in a really, really long time. it was like someone had lit a fire inside of me and thrown in 8 gallons of gas upon it... and pretty much that is what everyone in the room experienced... a mini explosion... cuss words and all! (sorry again guys)

before i launch into the next bit, i feel to say the following comment: let me just tell you how much i LOVE men. i generally love the company of men, the candid way of speaking, talking sports and all that goes along with being around testosterone. men are great.

with all of that being said, let me now proceed to giving men out there a piece of my mind... because if ever there was a hot button for me... this ignorant man certainly pushed it and the residue of his comment is still swarming around.

to men, (if it applies to you):
what gives you the right to talk to women about their bodies in ANYTHING but a positive, uplifting way? you don't think it's bad enough that we, as women, are bombarded every day of our lives with pornographic pictures of unrealistic women pasted EVERYWHERE, from tv/billboard/magazine/newspaper ads to logos, to televion, to music, to books, to radio... EVERYWHERE we turn we are faced with this idea that our bodies (the ones that Heavenly Father gave us... yeah... those ones) aren't good enough... we shouldn't be happy with them and certainly the men who love us aren't supposed to be happy with them because "we don't look like THAT" [pointing to the cover of some magazine with a fake-looking-beautiful-to-skinny model trying to look like she is the NORM]

because we are faced with these images on a minute to minute basis, many of us... from as early as 11 or12 (now we are seeing girls as young as 5) years old HATE everything about our bodies... and even more unfortunate... many of the beautiful, smart, AMAZING women i know today... still do! you don't think that for 2.5 seconds that we aren't already hard enough on ourselves??? that we don't already scrutinize every last flaw we see??? so for some pig-headed, insecure man to come along and think he has the right to say anything about a physical feature or what we are eating is absolutely disgusting to me.

believe me guys, i know you are not all like this... i promise. i have been fortunate to have FANTASTIC men in my life who love me and lift me up in ways only they can. i have listened to the way our prophet, Gordon B Hinckley, speaks to the women of our church and NEVER do i feel more powerful then when i hear him revere and admire women.

but i have also had the unfortunate experience of being in relationships with men who did not treat me in a way that would help me to know that i am beautiful inside and out... and unfortunately, those scars are extremely hard to heal. you have no idea how much weight your words carry or how lasting an affect (for the good or evil) they have on the precious women in your life.

to round this out, i am just going to finish this by pleading with all men that can hear my voice... please help us combat the horrible, insecure thoughts that wage a war in our minds every day. please be the one to lift, support and revere the women in your life... find yourself giving more compliments and don't forget to tell them they are beautiful-- physically as well as all of the other important ways. if it's one thing i know... the minute you start lifting the women in your life, you will be taken care of ten fold.


to all the women out there-- WE ARE BEAUTIFUL! (say it with me... raise your hands... higher... louder... that's what i'm talkin' 'bout)

CHECK OUT MY STINKIN CUTE BABIES!!!

MEET MADDIE:

she likes to sing and smiles all the time

she KNOWS she's cute!

MEET TY,GABE and new baby sis HALEIGH:

double trouble with sinfully good looks and twice the amount of precocious-ness

and an angel with a munchkin face

I MISS THESE KIDS AND IT BREAKS MY HEART THAT I AM MISSING ALL OF THE GROWING UP!

by the way... i also have more nephews and necies... but no pictures of them... so if you are the parents of said children, please feel free to forward any and all pictures of your cute families.

WICKED (good) INDULGENCE


in honor of the spooky season, i thought i would let you all in on a personal wicked indulgence of mine... i'm just gonna let my hair down and i don't care what you think. personally, i think we all have similar sinful delights... i'm just willing to admit mine!

alright so it's 10 am as i write this and sitting next to me while i'm at the computer typing is 1/4 OMNI FOOD's apple-cranberry pie WITH more than a few table spoons of cool whip on top AND next to it a dangerously extra large coffee mug filled with 2 packets of extra-rich swiss miss hot chocolate with 1/2 hot steaming water and 1/2 milk... (the trick is to heat the water to so boiling that if it touched your skin you would suffer 4th degree burns and then pour in the cold milk and it cools it down to PERFECT hot chocolate drinking temperature).

all in all i'd say i'm currently eating about 8,000 calories and LOVING every minute of it!!!

not that i am trying to justify this by any means, but it's not like i do this on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis so i feel this wicked indulgence is perfectly fine. but yes, i have done this before... and i will do it again!

come on, admit it... you do crap like this too. sure yours may not be stuffing your face with dump-trucks full of sugar and fat in the a.m. but you can't tell me that you don't every once in a while buy that large box of hostess powdered donuts and eat the entire box while you are sitting at your desk... or on your way home from work stop in at the local convenience store to pick up that pint of ben and jerry's KARAMEL SUTRA and down the whole thing before that episode of desperate housewives is over.

or maybe it is just me and to make myself feel better, i convince myself that there are others out there.

oh wait... hold on... the cool whip atop my pie has melted, i need to replenish... gotta go, this is important!

I BLEW UP MY FACE

okay so i know that it's been a month and i haven't written a thing. i promise you that life has been so busy and i haven't had much time at the computer to write something worth reading.

however, to make up for my absence, i will now tell you all a story that i hope will help you to forget that i have been a slacker. thanks to mary who gave me the idea to actually post this story... don't know why i never thought to share this most embarrassing story before.

the time was winter of 2005 and i had just completed a long trek across this nation of ours to move myself back to UTAH. i felt like the move was the right thing to do, but i was a) not happy about it and b) EVERYTHING had gone wrong from my car getting broken into a week into my new life... to not being able to find a "big people" job... to having the roommate from hell... to getting the FLU and STEP THROAT at the exact same time... to putting a nail through my thumb with a nail gun... yeah, i said everything... and that was just the short list.

the place was HALE CENTRE THEATRE in west valley city, ut where my wonderful friend andrew had given me a job as his personal assistant (he being the technical director there). i was running around doing odd jobs, helping to build sets and props and best of all was in charge of the pyrotechnics for the current show... CINDERELLA. you see, the fairy god-mother had to have a wand, and not just any wand... one that sparkles and makes a bright flash when she "used her magic." that's where i came in. because i had been there with andrew when we learned about the wand and was shown how to use it, clean it and care for it... i was put in charge.

every night, i was to test the wand (take it for a practice run), change out the coil (if need be) and get it ready for that night's performance. so that's what i did.

this particular night was just like any other. i was busy about changing the wand coil and had packed it solid with the appropriate amount of gun powder and extra sparkly, sparkle dust. the loaded wand was in my left hand... the same hand that had a huge splint on it because i had sent a nail into the heart of my thumb the week before and the JERK ER doctor had put this huge cast thingy on my thumb the size of andre the giant's middle finger.

so there i am, in the green room of the theater, with bum thumb in a monster splint and loaded wand when all of a sudden my phone rings... and like the dork that I am... i answer it.

"oh, hey rach... how's it going... blah blah blah"

in a blink of a second, really that's all it took for the wand to begin slipping from my grasp and without thinking readjust my grip, trigger the button to ignite the wand and

POOF... you are now a "pretty princess." actually, no... it was more like

BANG, GLITTER, SCREAM, DROP THE PHONE... in that order.

i guess this is what it must feel like to be in a battle (okay maybe not that dramatic, but still) where all of your senses go some place else and you are left numb and even though there has been trauma, you stand still and try to remember what to do next.

there i was, with my eyes covered, as at this point i was convinced that i had just lost my eyesight, and my first sense to recover was my sense of sound.

"PEGGY!!! PEGGY!" rachel's adorably shrill voice is screaming from somewhere on the floor.

Next... time for the moment of truth... i slowly take my hands away from my eyes and blink a few times.

I CAN SEE... I HAVE THE GIFT OF SIGHT... HOW GLORIOUS!!!

I then realize that rachel is still on the other end, panicked and worried, so i pick the phone up from off the floor and scream something at her that probably sounded like...

"I HAVE TO CALL YOU BACK" close phone and look around in a panic.

now what? what should i do... and then... sniff. hmmm... sniff, sniff... that smells like burnt... hair??? OH MY GOSH!

i race to the mirror of the green room and a tear begins to trickle down my cheek just as my hand raises to my forehead and a ball of brown, melted, mangled hair falls gently into it.

dudes, i looked like sinead o'connor.

as i continue to survey the damage, i realize just how lucky i really am seeing that i only suffered slight burns to my eyelids and a bit of my eyebrow is missing. no biggie. right? yeah that's actually BEFORE i tried to do my make-up that night and realized that i had NO EYELASHES to put mascara on!!!

I BEGAN TO SOB

WAAAAHHH!!! I HAVE A BUM THUMB AND NO EYELASHES... AND ALL OF A SUDDEN I HAVE THE URGE TO START SINGING...

"nothing compares.... no-thing compares... to youuuuu"

needless to say, i did recover. it only took about a month for my eyelashes to grow back, i played around with my hair so you couldn't see my bald spot in front... several months later, and after several stages the front of my hair went through, it finally DID grow back. and now i am much more appreciative of my bangs! (wow i have this scary feeling that i just sounded like a 14 year old bimbo saying that)

so there you go... i did the best with this story as i could, it being almost midnight. BUT i think it's safe to say that we all know the moral to this story... don't we?

ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FORREST FIRES!

yeah that was dumb... goodnight.