Friday, December 30, 2011

2011, adios!

Here we are at the close of 2011, which means, it's time to reflect on all that has happened this year. As I think of the year in general, I'm leaning towards it being good, though the stressful parts were REALLY stressful.

As usual, good things are in green and bad in red.

January


  • After having reviewed every episode of Bewitched since the 40th anniversary of the premiere on September 17, 2004 for HarpiesBizarre.com, and at the prompting of my readers, I submitted the idea to Bear Manor Media and they said I may have to edit it, however, that indicated they were interested:)

  • Mr. Sniffles, my parent's cat, came in one day from outside very ill and later my mom let him out again and he never came back. It's so very sad.

February



  • I got almost $3,000 for my yearly bonus which I used to pay off RC Willey and pay off my car!!! I also got a laptop.

March



  • Because I was going to meet Barbara Eden (Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie) next month, I decided I wanted a Jeannie bottle and found one for about 3/4 of the price! When it arrived, it was horribly painted but the seller sent me another one that was much better.

  • Mayson celebrated his 5th birthday at Boondock's. Everyone was there except Jody, who wasn't invited. It was so much fun. We played laser tag and also went in the go-carts.

April



  • I went to Los Angeles by myself so I could meet Barbara Eden at her book signing. I was going to meet some of my Bewitched friends there but it was so lonely and dumb being by myself. I did go to Disneyland by myself which was interesting. But Barbara was so awesome and beautiful!

May



  • Mom passed her final and only has one more class to go to finally be out of school!

  • Tracey introduced me to "Ultimate Dog Tease" which truly made me happy and still does. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/nGeKSiCQkPw



  • Had a candle light vigil for the 16th anniversary of Elizabeth Montgomery's passing. Tracey, Jenn, and her new awesome boyfriend Zack were there. We watched her Twilight Zone and Johnny Staccato episode. We also watched "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble."

  • That same day was also HIV Awareness Day that Paula Abdul was always mentioning on her site. So I posted about how fitting that it also fell on Liz's death anniversary as Liz was a champion for AIDS rights and Paula responded, "@davidp what an AWESOME post about Elizabeth Montgomery. She was right we need to get educated about HIVE and AIDS and STOP STOP STOP w/the ignorance and prejudice." It made me happy that Paula mentioned Liz:)

  • I also started on a new team at work. My supervisor is Laura Holden, who was rumored to be a horrible person, but I really like her. She has made me loyalty champ.

  • Saw Pirates of the Carribean III with Tracey, Ian, Mackenzie and Jack. It was way awesome because it has mermaids in it.

  • I had to get a new cell phone as the speaker on my Palm Pre Plus blew out so I got an awesome HTC Incredible 2.

  • I also showed Mayson the "Ultimate Dog Tease" video and he was laughing so hard, he was slapping his knees, and said, "Dave! We have got to show this to someone!" Man, he's so funny!

June



  • Attended the Best in State awards with Michelle, Michael, Jenn, Tracey, and Jason Roundy as Michelle's Utah Events by Design was receiving an award. We rented tuxes and the girls bought dresses. It felt very much like the Academy Awards.

  • Jenn and I spent a Sunday going to various little known parks around the city, particularly the Peace Gardens so I could finally see the Little Mermaid statue. That night Tracey, Michelle, Michael and I went up the canyons to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. It was a great day.

  • I spoke to one of the relatives of the Von Trapp family at work which spawned many emails with my team quoting the songs from the movie. It was hilarious!

  • I went to the zoo with my mom and Mayson and we had a really fun time. Mayson was so cute saying, "Let me see the map. I know where to go."

  • I hadn't heard from Ben Ohmart of Bear Manor Media in over a month since submitting the edited book so I asked him how it was going and he replied, "It's a good piece of work, so let's go for it!" WOO-HOO!!!! I had started pursuing the book also because last September Paula Abdul had challenged everyone to make goals and that was one of mine so I tweeted her that it was going to be published and she responded, "DON'T MAKE ME CRY! If i start cyring this early team mystery glam will find you and they'll HURT YOU! I'M ECSTATIC FOR YOU! xoP" Awesome!!

  • I met Jen Gruz on her layover from Alaska on an early Saturday morning. It was good to see her.

July



  • Rachel Harris Hill, the girl I dated in 2005, found me on Facebook. I've thought of her every day since we split up and I found she was married but divorced and has a two year old son. We only traded like two messages and she never wrote back to me.

  • Pamela and Sydney came up to visit one weekend for Sydney's softball tournament. Tracey and I met her and Janette Clark Belnap and Jill Atwood at the Valley Fair Olive Garden and had the best time. On Sunday, Pam, Sydney and I went to Temple Square and had lunch. It was a fun day.

  • The Slack Family Bear Lake trip was fun, even without Evelyn and Bert. My family went up to Preston, Idaho to visit the sites from Napoleon Dynamite. It was awesome! My mom really loved it and so did Mayson.

  • Had a fun time at the Pioneer Day celebration at Evelyn's, though it wasn't as fun as last year.

  • Amy Winehouse, one of my favorite singers, died of alcohol poisoning. So sad, but not unexpected. That same day Jenn threw a huge summer BBQ at our house that even Paul came to! It was fun.

August



  • My mom, Paul, Mayson, Pibby, Jenny, and I went up to Tyler's family's cabin in Kamas with he and Heather and had a great time even though we had to bring water in from the creek for the toilet. It was beautiful up there and I tried riding a motor cycle for the first time and about crashed.

  • Tracey and I took Mayson to see the UP house in South Jordan. It was so awesome!

  • One Friday I had off and posted on Twitter that I had the day off and Paula Abdul asked "How's your day off? xoP I replied, "Fine as frog hair...I'm going to hang with my 5 year old nephew Mayson. He's awesome! How's your day?" Usually Paula doesn't respond more than once but she responded, "Fine as frog hair? Really?? I see where this #Friday is headded...hairy frogs, guys named Dougie and 'Stanky' legs. lol" based on other comments going on. While I was hanging with Mayson this strange boy came to the door saying the Draper grandkids had told him to come find a drink at our house and I told him to go back there and tell them to be nice. Well, the next day I find out that the kid went and climbed up the Draper's roof and fell down their chimney and got stuck!! The fire department came over and had to break down the walls in the living room to get him out. Crazy!!

  • Mayson started kindergarten!! I can't believe he's old enough to go to school! They made him the 'C' expert.

September



  • Mayson lost his first tooth!

  • We celebrated Paul's birthday at Pat's BBQ and invited Michael and Michelle since it was also Michael's birthday. It was fun.

  • Heather's birthday was awesome because I gave her this HUGE Simpsons book that is comprised of the first 20 seasons. She loved it.

  • I started taking supervisor calls at work last month, not really wanting to as I had done so for a week in February and hated it. It has been horrible!! People such dumb asses!

  • Grandma Pierce stopped eating around Heather's birthday and my dad and I went to go see her the weekend of September 11. She had really labored breathing just like Grandma Slack did before she died. We said our goodbyes and on September 12, Grandma passed away. We had her funeral that weekend and I, Tracey and Troy, Pamela and Natalie, and Matt all gave talks. It's so weird that she actually died.

October



  • The weekend of my birthday, Dad had to go to the hospital because two of his toes are totally black and he had red lines going up his leg which indicates infection. So I made my birthday dinner of tacos and mom had made me a chocolate cake. Michelle, Michael, Paul, Mayson, Pibby, Jenny, Tracey, Jenn and Zack were all there. It was a lot of fun and we went bowling too, which I've wanted to do the past five birthdays.

  • Paul and Jody FINALLY got divorced! It's sad but good.

  • Paul went with me to Reno to stay at Andrea and Robert White's for Halloween. We had a lot of fun with the exception of me choking so bad on some food at the Chinese restaurant in Virginia City that I had to go to the emergency room. I was really scared. But they did a good job. I was King Henry VIII. It was awesome!

November



  • My parents were supposed to work for Thanksgiving and Pibby and Jenny and Heather and Tyler were going elsewhere so Michelle invited Paul and I. We had a really good dinner and just hung out most of the day until the evening when Paul went and picked up Mayson and we all went to see the new Muppet movie. I loved it! But I seemed to be the only one, other than Mackenzie, who was with us with Ian and Jack.

December



  • My mom failed her final which means she cannot get her RN. Her teacher was the biggest bitch and pretty much made all the tests impassable. There were many that didn't pass. Mom is currently trying to appeal it.

  • I was finally taken off taking supervisor calls. So glad!! I hated it so much!

  • Christmas was good with the traditional Christmas breakfast. Jenny had my name and she got me Liz Montgomery's The Black Widow Murders.

  • I also decided I have to have another job so I applied at Altius on the advice of Paul because his friend works there and I got it! So now I have to quit Verizon which is going to be difficult, but necessary.

  • My book has also gone to the typesetter and so I feel that it's going to be published in the spring.

I'm really excited for 2012 - new job, first book published, and hopefully many more great things!