Sushi for Breakfast

It began so innocently, with the noblest of intentions....

My lovely wife and I are broke. In fact, we've accelerated past broke, and probably are approaching "brizzoke". This has reached the point where I've started to economize, and for those who aren't familiar with a Jeremy who is wondering how he will make rent at the end of the month, that means that I have reached a sufficient level of panic that I find myself thinking, "You shouldn't drink that soda. There are only two left and they need to last." Eating out is a luxury on the par with leasing a new Lexus, or departing on a spontaneous trans-Atlantic cruise.

This morning I left the apartment, thinking to myself that I didn't want to drink one of the last four Dr. Peppers in the place, after all, the soda has to last. I didn't grab breakfast, thinking that I could hold out until lunch, teach my classes, and be able to go home and eat something there....maybe ramen, soup, or something else I can whip together quickly.

First, the thirst came. I needed to cross the campus to submit some paperwork (in an unrelated aside, I've finally finished all of the paperwork for Fall Semester of 2010, and can now start working on the current term) in the beaurocratic heart of the University. The Student Services building never ceases to amaze me, as it has the same dehumanizing effect on me now as a graduate student and teaching fellow that it had on me as a new student at the school. The building and its staff tend to silently scream at you that you don't matter, you are just another body going through the turnstile. Take your form and wait your turn.

On the way back, I stopped at the Union, thinking that perhaps I would cave and indulge in a Coke or a Dr. Pepper. Even in hard times, $1.50 is not an unheard-of indulgence. That was when I saw the sign.

It beaconed to me like a siren, luring my ship to be dashed upon its rocky shores. For those unfamiliar, sushi has its own aesthetic; good sushi having been well rolled, beautifully cut,  and precisely arranged into a visual feast comparable its flavor. Seeing well made sushi evokes a visceral reaction that is difficult to describe; a gnawing hunger in the pit of one's stomach that can only be filled in a singular way.

Naturally, the packaged product does not approach the signage, but almost without thinking I discover myself in my office once again, eating spicy shrimp rolls while sipping on a Mexican Coca-Cola (the one with the real sugar made all the more flavorful by its real glass bottle). Suddenly, I find myself realizing that I'm now $8.00 poorer, and the nagging hole in pit of my stomach that was opened by that cursed sign has not been filled. I am instead a man who tried to stop a tidal wave with a handful of corks out of old wine bottles; having plunged the available tool into the deluge, only to find them completely useless at stemming the tide of hunger. I need real sushi. The kind you see in the pictures. I need it soon.

 Ladies and gentlemen, I have had unfulfilling sushi for breakfast. Now I have to figure out how to break it to the wife....

Whats the story morning glory?

The new people we meet always ask how we met. So, here it goes. I was in high school and my oldest brothers friend "Jeremy" was moving to Colorado, it was sad. I may have even cried. High school finished and I was stuck with the daunting task of trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I ended up at massage. It was a way to help people, I wouldnt be stuck in an office all day. I started to look at schools around town. My mom suggested possibly moving away for school. She was thinking Northern Utah, maybe St. George, Southern Utah. I was thinking California. My family had taken a trip to Vail, Colorado a few years before, Colorado was close enough to Utah. I decided Colorado would be a good choice. I started massage school in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Jer found out that I was moving to Colorado and we started talking more and more. I started to think about him alot. He was a really nice guy and, very cute :) So, I moved to Colorado and we spent some time together. I was 18, Jer was 27, and thinking about settling down and having a family. That scared me. So we stopped seeing each other as much. Life went on for both of us. School was going on famously, I had started dating a few guys. I was even engaged (1st time out of 3) . But that didnt go well. His name was Andy. He was bi-polar and un meddicated. It made the relationship hard. I broke up with him, and at that same time found out I was pregnant. I ended up placing her with some very wonderful people Jenna and Jon. They named my baby Paisley. She will be five in a few weeks. After all of that insanity I married my first husband Brad. We were married for almost two years. Brad and I were divorced June of 2009. The same year my Dads mother died April 15th Tax Day, and my Mothers sister attempted to commited suicide in late July, she later died in September. But that is another story for another day. As I tried to pull the fragments of my life back together I started to re-think everything. All of my relationships had crashed and burned, but I thought back to Jeremy, maybe we could have a shot again. I found him on facebook and was silently stalking him. I noticed he still lived in Colorado. Watching what he was doing, who he was hanging out with, if he was dating anyone. I noticed he had a going away party...but where was he going? I spotted a picture of a cake, that had the University of Utah logo on it. I was stunned. "Was he really coming back?" I asked myself. I sent him a message that was short and sweet. "hi jer, its annie, i was just thinking about what went on between us. I see you are moving back to utah. Swing by my starbucks and say hi, or dont no hard feelings." Jer replied and told me it would be nice to catch up but warned me that he was very different from what I probably remembered. We decided to meet and catch up anyway, and the rest is history. Well, maybe not. We were attatched at the hip from that day on. We talked about life and what we wanted out of it. As it turns out we wanted similar things. My family was talking about taking a trip in March of 2010 to Disneyworld I really wanted to go and so did Jer. But I couldnt afford it. To my surprize Jer offered to pay for me to go. He also told me he would propose there, but he kept it a secret when he would actually pop the question. Just as I was accepting the fact that he had gotten cold feet he dropped to his feet and asked me to marry him, in the middle of the fireworks display as Tinkerbell flew across the sky. I said yes and everyone around us cheered. Then began the 'wedding' plans. I didnt want a big wedding, and to everyones astonishment neither did Jer. The idea was to go to a beach somewhere and come back married. That plan soon went out the window when our parents heard the plan. So we comprimised and decided to go down to the court house and invite our parents. July 8th 2010, was the day we got married, we even threw a small bash after. Joe (one of my four brothers) and his wife Emily could not make it into town for the day so we threw a 'reception' in October when they were in town. It was small but awesome, just like we wanted, surrounded by friends and family.

Back to Basics

I've been reading a lot of Richard Williams the last few days (over the winter break) and decided that I needed to pull back and play with some very basic animation techniques. This is all just 2d animation...nice because all I had to do was draw a circle and a background.

Its proved to be an interesting trial...I think the general pacing is good, but there is a little bit of lag in the bounces. I'd like those to have some more snap. Next trial sometime soon.

How to convince your wife...

Its bedtime. It's probably been bedtime for a while now. We really should have gone to sleep a while ago, but lets face it, I'm not exactly the best influence thanks to the winter break. Tomorrow morning is going to come and there is a very good chance that my poor groggy girl is going to stumble out of bed at "still dark outside o clock" and I'm going to have a very hard time convincing myself not to just roll over and go back to sleep. After all, my faculty meetings don't start until 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, so theoretically I could sleep in until then.

So here we sit, watching documentaries on DVD, and we've both succumbed to the siren's call of the internet.

The eternal conundrum....how do I convince the wife that its bedtime, when really I want to suck every last waking second out of the last few days I have with her before I go back to working two jobs and being a full time student....