THE ANGRY POSTMAN/WOMAN

So... have you ever been so frustrated that you just want to smash destroy something? Apparently, that is how my post man/woman feels on a daily bases.

exhibit A.

Now this photo, is not even the worst of the nonsense. Now, I know it's hard to see in this photo, half of our mail is torn, scrunched, or bent. I first really noticed this when I got a wedding invitation that was completely torn and bent.... so I thought maybe the mailman was saying "you check your mail more often missy." I have made a serious attempt to clean out my mailbox on a daily basis.... and still smash, crunch, DESTROY. I am not thrilled that my husband is going to have to turn in a half crumpled government form to his employer that was shoved in that mess. I don't know what's going on in their personal life, but they should their frustration out of my mailbox. ;) ha ha gives me a good laugh, daily.

On a later note, I totally geeked out at the type museum in Provo this week. 

See this machine? It's called a lineotype. Seriously, I got so excited, my palms started to sweat and I wanted to run up and start typing on it soo bad. 

Here is a video so you can hear the magical goodness of what this machine is. It took individual metal letters and instead of having to hand place them for a print it dropped them down a shoot in order... Learn about it if you haven't. 

And that wasn't the end of my geeking for the week. Yesterday I got to listen to Jessica Hishe 

She does custom lettering and design. I swooned over her work the whole time it was up on the projector. She's so young and talented and absolutely hilarious. I made Jake go with me and while he enjoyed it, it wasn't quite the same to him. Jessica does stuff like this.

That's just one example of her wonderfulness. 

Oh and on another design geek note, it's such a good feeling to see your logo on the store shelves like I did the other week.... Who would have thought standing in line to check out, that me, Chelsey Oldham would look over and see this. Pretty exciting. :)

UPLIFTING

I needed this today... and figured I would share it just in case  anyone else needs it as well.

CIRCLE VS. SQUARE

This video is a project I did for my Interactive II class. (The one I added because I thought it would be really fun, even though I don't have enough time in the day). That one, this project I spent all Sunday after church working on, non stop... from about 3-11:30. It's not completely finished but have a look. :)

THE REBEL IN ME... YIKES.

This is a story about shoplifting. (Please keep reading while I explain myself).

It all started Holy War morning. I had family pictures at 5:30 and didn't have anything to fit the colors that were chosen. I had searched on and off the previous weeks, but nothing. So at about 8:30 I woke up and continued my search. I forgot my phone at home and had no make-up on (this will give you an idea of how not put together I was that day). So, I started out at a store that seemed like it would have potential family photo outfit candidates. I was right, there were some cute sweaters. I decided to try them on and none were up to par. 

Frustrated, I left that store and drove to another one. After searching the 2nd store for about a half an hour I gathered my likes and headed to try them on. I entered the dressing room and here is where the funny stuff happened, I unzipped my jacket that I left my house wearing, to find a new and strange blue tank underneath... First, confusion. Second, GASP! That was the tank I had tried on with the sweaters at the previous store. I almost died right there in my favorite store. I ran out of the dressing room now with full knowledge of what I had done... Unknowingly walked out of the store with their un-purchased merchandise. 

I wanted to run right back to the first store to return my blue exaltation killer, but my imagination got the best of me and I pictured myself going to return it and the security team at the store just waiting for me as I pull up, from there they would take me into a dark room and interagate me as I plead for sympathy that it really was an dumb accident. I also thought that because I had no cell phone they could hold me prisoner as long as they wanted and Jake would never know... So I added a stop at my house where my husband was soundly sleeping. I ran in screaming that I had accidentally stolen a tank top as I ripped off my jacket so he could see that unholy piece of clothing, tag and all. He bursted out laughing... I didn't think it was as amusing. Slowly he got up and got dressed to help me out of the mess I had created. My sweet husband returned to the store with me slouching in the car and walked in and placed the tank back where I had found it. No cops, no interigation rooms, nothing. Thankfully. But on an even brighter note, I got to watch the UTES win, while I sit in the middle of a bunch of BYU fanatics. Ha ha bliss.

p.s. Don't judge me. 

THE SWING OF THINGS...

Well, since summer ended Jake and I have been trying to get back into the swing of things, which is easier said than done when my schedule for the next 3 days looks like this... Seeing those lines of things I got going on sometimes makes me want to vomit. But, what can you do. The light at the end of the tunnel is near and even if I'm beaten down and bruised I will crawl and scoot along the floor in my graduation cap and gown to get out of this awful tunnel.

I know it's fuzzy and you can't read it, but that schedule tells me that I wont be home until 9 at night... for the next 3 days. Which kind of excites me... ish. Not all of it is school, that schedule also includes Zumba and mutual (i'll explain later). This semester I was planning on taking 15 credits, working 30 hours a week and having the easy calling of a primary teacher. I was feeling pretty happy about it. About a week into the semester things changed... Change # 1, I got a new calling, Beehive Adviser, I am super stoked to be with the girls because I know what a difference an adviser can make during that time in your life, but it is a lot more time consuming. So all the free time I was hoping for will probably be used to fulfill that duty. Next, there was a class I adored last semester and you can re-take it... so I decided to pile that onto my schedule giving me a total of 15 credits, work full time and beehive adviser. Awesome. But, how could you pass up the class when the teacher is doing stuff like this... 

Hope you enjoyed that, (it was my teachers motion reel, all stuff he has done.) he's awesome and I am really interested in motion design so I couldn't not get into the class. Hopefully I'll come out with some awesome stuff to put into my portfolio... Hopefully, if I have time.

In other news. Jakes working full time and biking when he can. He's awesome and last week I came home from a loooong day at school and he had cleaned the house up for me. :) Still happy to be married to that man. He's doing really well, although, he's not to thrilled to have to teach the 5 year olds on Sunday's without me. He'll do great though, the children love him!

MISSIONARIES ARE HEARTBREAKERS...

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a friend send off her missionary. In love and dying for him to come back the day he leaves. I remember and old roommate of mine use to run to the mail box in the morning to see if there was word from her man. If there was, excitement filled her day and all seemed to go well. If there wasn't, gloom. The day was practically worthless and everything seemed a little darker. Because of watching girls go through this situation, I decided that life, was not the life for me. I didn't want a letter to have that much control over my mood, I didn't want to worry all the time about someone that I couldn't just text and ask if they were okay. That was my decision and I made it to my wedding day without ever having to run to my mailbox.

Little did I know that this little guy was going to cause some problems.

Ahh, but he did. Last Wednesday my little brother took off to the MTC. I was so excited that he made the choice to go and extremely proud. But it was awful. We dropped him off at the curb and seeing all of those other missionaries there made me cry. Then one quick hug and his back was turned and they were taking him off. That began the worry. I hope he's okay. I hope he's not scared. Heart break. I miss my little bro a lot. Not that I got to see him that often but if I wanted to I could. I miss his funny facebook posts that I would always read aloud to whoever was around. And this morning when I woke up, I found myself rushing to the mailbox in hope for a letter... Nestled inside that little box was a letter from Elder Mason Ellison. And excitement filled my day and everything seemed to go well. No matter how hard I tried to avoid it, unexpectedly, it came. <3 Lil Mas.

WHAT THE SHIP?!

Ugh... So my mom has always joked that I have her bad luck. And although I tried to deny it I have been forced to surrender into acceptance. From dumb little things like getting rear ended and having the insurance company claim it was my fault, to getting a following too close ticket for following my dad on the way to see my new niece, note the man that actually rear ended me just years earlier did not even receive one of those. 


Driving has indeed caused it's misfortunes in my life, but my real beef is with online shopping. Shipping just never seems to go my way. My husband on the other hand is the exact opposite. While I'm sitting in the fetal position terrified that things wont work out, he's relaxing telling me that everything will. Things work out for him. Things go terribly wrong for me. He also denied it at first but now laughs because he can't believe how true it is. Where has my good Karma gone? 


So... this brings me to my story. Every time I buy something online, something seems to go wrong. It takes an extra week for my expedite mail to arrive, the wrong item arrives, something. But nothing compares to the shipping fiasco that was this week. 


It all started last Wednesday when I ordered my books for my classes. It was Labor Day so I had an extra day off of class and needed the books by Tuesday. So, I 2 day shipped them. They shipped that day and I started tracking them. Friday night when checking my shipping it said the packages had arrived. Go outside Saturday morning to get them... Nothing. Oh no. I called this small company called OnTrac and asked them where my package was. They told me the driver was gone for the weekend and they couldn't help me till Tuesday. I told them that there was a reason that I ordered 2 day... they didn't seem to care.


Tuesday rolled around and I called back. They said that on Wednesday they would send the driver back to the area where he dropped off my package to look for it. And that they would let me know if he found it... Hmm. I was not happy. So, Wednesday I waited for that package to be delivered, nothing. I called on Tuesday and they told me that the driver claims he "re-delivered" my package. I walk outside and no such luck. This was the point where I threw a bit of a fit because I had an assignment that was due from that book at 4 that evening. I told them their driver was an idiot or a liar and they told me it's wrong to find the right house in the dark even the 2nd time around. Obviously frustrated and remembering what got my brain working when I was in customer service threw around reporting them to the BBB and to Amazon whom they contract with. They promised that they would send the delivery man BACK out that night to find the package. I called Amazon where the nice customer service lady helped me bag on the absurdness of their story. She told me they would overnight me a replacement. I was so relieved, until she said "uh oh"... We're actually out of stock on that book. It will be a few weeks. I told her thanks and If I don't see my book tonight I call for a refund in the morning. So... frustrated I found a forum online where 500+ people had complained about this company and added my complaint to the list. I was contacted by their online advocate who must have taken my BBB threat seriously because my package finally arrived on my door step that night... one hour after I needed it. 


Lesson learned, have Jake order everything online, we will pay for standard shipping and it will still show up within two days. Because that's how his online buying mojo works.


At least I had these yummy pink lemonade cupcakes to scarf down in my mess.