J C

Justin came in to meet with Nicole.
He told me that my giant nerd glasses are cool.
BAH!
Pretty sure that means true love.

Last Name

CARPITA!!!!!!
Justin from The Berry Company's last name is Carpita.
Bahahahahaha!!! He called just now and so very luckily I answered!!! Of course, he asked to talk to Nicole about some marketing stuff. But I don't even care! Because he is cute even on the phone!!!
What a great morning.
Caitlyn Carpita.

Work

Sometimes, when people call and ask me questions that I don't know the answer to, I tell them to hold on one moment while I look in my database. Little do they know, my database is Google.

Brilliancy on a Birthday

Ok. If Disneyland is normally the happiest place on earth, it is doubly so on your birthday. they give you a button that tells the world it's your birthday, and all the workers say happy birthday, and so do random people! And it is so great.
Plus. Blake bought me a hat that was the most ostentatious thing in the world. It was a shiny pink leopard print conical princess hat, with hot pink tinsel on the edge and the top and said "All Hail the Birthday Princess." It was obnoxious and I wore it the entire day. It wasn't hard for people to tell it was my birthday!
I got off work early on Thurday and drove in my sketchy (but loved!) car down to Globe, where I picked up Carleigh. She and I JAMMED our way into Mesa to Blake's house, which we found totally on our own, since Blake wasn't answering his phone! When we finally got to his house, he told us he'd had a crazy afternoon, which included his phone running out of battery just before we got there. Due to his crazy afternoon, he and Jeremy were not ready to go, so Carleigh and I went to Panda Express and ate dinner while creeping on a couple that we were pretty sure were Mormon on their first date. We tried to eavesdrop on their conversation to make doubly sure, but the group in the table next to us were talking too loudly about getting high. So.
When we got back to the house, we still had to wait because the boys had remembered an online art test they had to take for their class. No prob, though, because soon enough we were on the road to California!
So it's six hours from Mesa to Anaheim. We got there at three in the morning and went immediately to sleep in our hotel.
Remember how I was worried about fog? It seemed my worries were confirmed that next morning when I looked out the window. But it burned off by ten o'clock and it was a gorgeous day!
Blake styled his hair into a point at the front and said, "Look, I'm a Disney Channel star. Hey kids, I'm Mikey Shawn!" I have no idea where Mikey Shawn came from, but it set off the rest of our day, where we made up DC names for all of us and were in a DC group. I was Sally James, Carleigh was Daphne Scott, and Jeremy was Charlie Banks. Apparently, he was a gangsta, because it soon shortened to C Banks and he went around rapping.
Friday morning at DISNEYLAND: Space Mountain, very first thing. Of course! We cruised around the park all day, hitting every great ride. We ate gumbo! At the waterfront where everything is like New Orleans. And we saw Princess Tiana from The Princess and The Frog with her jazz band! Of course we rode It's A Small World, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones. Jeremy also wanted to play in Tarzan's Treehouse, so we did, along with all the six year olds. We got some weird looks from parents.
Disneyland closed at seven for a Halloween party deal, so we jaunted over to California Adventure. Right when we got there, there were glowing people on a blacklit stage doing a countdown for something. It was so entrancing, even though we had no idea what was going on, we followed them. Turns out, it was a GIANT DANCE PARTY, complete with glowing lights and blacklights and performers dressed as people from the new movie Tron! A whole dance party happy time to promote this new movie that we just happened to stumble upon! It was super brilliant. Maybe the coolest thing that happened.
Then we rode Tower of Terror! My first time ever! It was incredible! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!
Oh my gosh, just thinking back on all the GREAT AND CRAZY things that happened this weekend, I am so jittery! Just with joy and happiness!
At the end of Friday night, it was a little cold, so there was no one in line for the Grizzly Mountain water ride in CA Adventure. Of course we went like four times! We were FREEZING afterwards. We invented the grandma shuffle half jog walk to get to the car.
The next day was MY BIRTHDAY!!! We started the day at Disneyland City Hall, where they gave me my birthday button! Not only that, they give everyone in your party a button that says "I'm Celebrating!" Oh what a magical place. Then we went into California Adventure and rode every great ride. The rollercoaster! Brilliant. And Tower of Terror probably four times. And Soarin' Over California!
At night in California Adventure, they had a show called World of Color. It was all water fountains and colored lights and FIRE! It was so beautiful.
We all four linked arms and skipped around the park and generally acted like seven year olds. (Seven times three! WOO)
CA Adventure closed at ten, so we jaunted over to Disneyland and rode Splash Mountain. At the end of our second ride, the lady told us we could just stay on and ride through. And then she let us again! Three times in a row on Splash Mountain! It really is the most magical place on earth!
Jeremy had to work at seven the next morning, so we got out of Anaheim and on the road! While Carleigh and Blake slept in the back, Jeremy drove and I sat up front trying to stay awake to keep him awake. Basically, we only stayed awake at all because of the AWESOME dance mix Jeremiah burned me for my birthday. We totally jammed the whole time we were driving. Still, it was so hard to stay awake. My eyes kept half closing and I was hallucinating that white boats were on the road in front of us. Just so tired.
When we finally got to Mesa at six in the morning, Carleigh and Blake and I all crashed. Poor Jeremy had to get ready for work!
Carl and I woke up at ten and left Blake sound asleep. He told us to wake him up before we left, but I swear, that boy goes into a coma the moment his head hits the pillow! So we just left. Ha! I took Carleigh over to her sister's, and then I drove (in the valley, all by myself! First time ever!) over to the Institute and went to church with Jess! Then she made me delicious spaghetti for lunch and we ate some chocolate frosting for dessert.
And then, I drove home!
Probably the most brilliant weekend of my life. And now I'm 21! Woo!
To sum: I love Disneyland.

Butterflies

Today's post will be all about butterflies.
1: One time, there was this girl in Young Women's with me. She was Deveney's age and she hated/was irritated by butterflies because they reminded her of this girl that loved butterflies and was slightly annoying about it. It was a big joke in YW for a long time. For this girl's birthday, Deveney made her a card. Covered in butterflies.
2: Butterflies in your stomach. This phenomenon can be attributed to a variety of causes, some of which are listed here: nerves, true love, EXCITEMENT OVER GOING TO DISNEYLAND!
3: I found a dead butterfly when I was vacuuming out my car today. (Technically, vacuuming should not be a verb. A vacuum is a noun, as is a vacuum cleaner, so it should really be 'vacuum cleaning out my car today.' But that sounds slightly dumb.)
4: The long tube mouth of a butterfly is called a proboscis. Actually, so is the trunk of an elephant.
5: Butterflies taste with their feet.
6: One time, I actually caught a butterfly.
7: On Alice In Wonderland, Alice sees "bread and butterflies" whose wings are slices of buttered bread. I am now hungry.
8: Remember that book The Hungry Caterpillar? He turned into a butterfly.
9: My roommate Katie is deathly afraid of moths. Which are like butterflies.
10: I AM GOING TO DISNEYLAND! Which was founded by Sir Walter Disney, who really loved butterflies. (That may or may not be true.) He did, however, own the studio that made the movie Alice In Wonderland, already mentioned in this post for the bread and butterflies. He did not write this book, Lewis Carroll did. (His real name was Charles Dodgson and he taught mathematics at Oxford.)
11. Back in grade school, the school would have this promotion deal on Arbor Day. You could buy different types of trees from the school. Every year, me and/or my sisters wanted to get what was billed as "the butterfly bush." The packet said that this bush would attract all the butterflies around. How magical, right? One year, we convinced our dad to buy it for us. He planted it in our backyard. It died.

Weather

I just looked up the weather for Anaheim, CA. Guess what will be there on the 22nd and the 23rd?
Fog. Yep. Fog.
HA! Well. At least it won't be blazing hot.
This morning my friend Brady Payne sent me a picture. He was in his chemistry lab down at EAC, and the picture was of a graph and lab write-up that I had done last year! It was super classy. My lab partner Alex had worked for an engineering company that previous summer, and so he was a pro at making our Excel graphs look super legit. On this particular instance, we printed to the wrong printer, and so our graphs printed out in the scrapbooking room, in super high color on glossy photo paper. We may or may not have gotten in a little trouble for that, and for the rest of the time in class, no one could print in color. . . . But whatever. Our teacher Mr. Shelton hung our glossy graph on the board, and apparently, it is still there! A nice memorial to Alex, who is on a mission, and me, who soon will be!
I will say that I miss chemistry. I loved that class. It was so interesting! I was reminded of that last night when me and Nolan started talking about hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids. Chemistry at EAC was so great. The first semester with Dr. Neary was a fog of confusion, through which I was helped by Aubre and Brady and Mitchell. But the second semester with wacky Mr. Shelton was a blast. I was the only girl in the class, so it was basically like having fourteen teasing older brothers everyday. We went on a field trip to the Morenci mine and it was amazing!
Good times. The good old EAC.
Did you know that the Eastern Arizona College Alma Mater is the tune of a hymn? Every time we sing the hymn in church, I can only think of the EAC words.

Hand Soap

Bath and Body Works is amazing.
The new soap in the bathroom is a seasonal special called Caramel Apple. I swear to you, it literally smells like an apple with a hint of caramely goodness. How do they do that? How do they capture exactly the essence of both apple and caramel in one shining soap? And when you pump the soap into your hand, it looks like liquid gold. It's all glisteny and shimmery and golden. It is incredible.
Still, the fact remains that I now have a faint urge to eat my hands. I guess that's the downside.
IN OTHER NEWS: 4 days til Disneyland.
That is all.

Weddings

I just saw some photos of my friend Andie Pandie's wedding.
LOVE IS GREAT!!
And couples are maybe the greatest thing in the world, as long as they are chill and really cute, and don't go around being disgusting (for example, PDA to the max, fighting in public, being generally dumb.) If a couple is just happy together and you can tell that when you see them just walking down the street, then they are GREAT and everything is happy.
Andie and Chris are one of the greatest couples I know.
Up with love! Hooray!

Fall

It is autumn. You can smell it. I can especially smell it because I work right across the street from Waldo's Barbecue, where the man does the cooking in his outdoor wood-burning cooker. When you can smell wood smoke, you know that it is fall.
Yesterday at work, a man came in to make an appointment. He mentioned that he needs to improve his hearing because he plays the bass in the hospital lobby with his friend playing the piano. This guy was 79, with his birthday coming up in about three weeks. And his piano playing friend is 83! We got to talking. His name is Richard Welsh and he has just had the most amazing life. He was the only musically inclined person in his family, and he learned the cello in his school orchestra when he was 12. He is a U.S. Navy veteran, and he told me a story about when he was stationed in Guam. He was down on the beach, and kept hearing music from somewhere. He hiked up the hill through the jungle and found a small clearing with a gazebo, in which there was a string quartet! He listened for a while, and then one of the girls noticed him and asked, "How does it sound?" They proceeded to have a conversation in which she asked if he played. When he replied that he did, she said, "Good. I need a break. Would you mind stepping in?" He just jumped right in and played with them. And he continued to play with them at gigs for the rest of his time in Guam!
He told me he and his wife had played together for years, her on the piano, organ, and accordion, until she died. He told me that she loved playing the big cathedral organs. Once, St. Patrick's Day fell on a Sunday, and she was playing the organ for Mass. After Mass, she started playing some Irish tunes, and no one left! They were all enjoying her playing so much. Finally, one of the priests came up and said "Mary, ye have to stop that playing! I have another Mass, you know!" (Mr. Welsh told me this story and included the Irish accent of the priest. Ha!)
He gave me some advice. He said, "If you are even a little bit musically inclined, hang on to that. Develop it and never let it go. You'll be able to go anywhere and make any friends. It will be a blessing to you all your life."
Isn't it a great world when we can meet people like this?
Birthday countdown: 8 days! This time next week, I'll be in the happiest place on earth! Woo!
MISSION COUNTDOWN: 6 weeks and 5 days. WOO!!!

21st Birthday

My birthday (2 weeks, 1 day) plans have been finalized.
DISNEYLAND!
Ha! Me and my old roommate and best friend Carleigh and Blake my friend from Snowflake and his ASU roommate Jeremy who works at the Hollister are all going to the happiest place on earth for my 21st!
BRILLIANT!

New Music!

- Hannah, by Freelance Whales. Maybe the most fun song of the week.
- Letdown, by This Providence. This song was in my head, so I turned it on to listen to it. The lyrics are actually a tad bit depressing, all about how this girl tells him he's a letdown. But it's all done to this super catchy beat and melody! It is way fun.
- Todo Cambio, by Camila. This is not a new song, but it's been on my playlist for the past week. Hooray for love songs in Spanish! Once, at college, we had a friend named Limhi who was from Hermosillo, and he would always come over and hang around with my roommate Nancy. She went to California on a Spanish speaking mission, so they would jabber away in Spanish all the time. One time, he was over, and I was listening to music while doing homework, and this song came on, and he said, "Hey! I know this song! Let me translate it for you." It is a lovely song. Feel free to look up the lyrics in English. Unless, you know, you speak Spanish. Then. . . just listen to it.
So this isn't a song, but here: The Doobie Brothers. Ha! My mom, in the mornings while she is cooking breakfast, she will put on her old records. Me and my brothers especially love the Doobie Brothers album.
- The Lightning Strike, by Snow Patrol. This song is like 16 minutes long, but every minute is completely worth it. It's divided up into three different sections, all the same song, but sounding a little different in each.
Probably this is all the music for today.

The Format

Here are some masterful lyrics:

Love is speaking in code
It's an inside joke
Love is coming home.

These lyrics courtesy of The Format, in the song If Work Permits. Utterly brilliant.