#557 hello Q4

Today is October 1. It is the first day of the fourth quarter of the year - some would say the best quarter because of the autumn weather and the holidays. I like to add because of sports. Usually we would start the NBA pre-season this month and we'd also have college football, the NFL and the baseball playoffs. I guess three out of four isn't bad. I will miss the NBA this year, though. Hopefully the owners and the players can get their acts together and resolve their issues. I'm not counting on it, though.

I haven't written for awhile, and I feel bad about it. I also haven't been doing my Spanish lessons and I feel even worse about that. I totally should have capitalized on my adventures in speaking and listening in the Dominican Republic and been inspired to learn and practice more Spanish. But I didn't, and now I have a lot of catching up to do. When I set aside time for myself to do it and actually honor my commitment to myself, I get it done. I just haven't done it yet. This being the first day of the fourth quarter and all that, I should re-start my learning journey.

But that will be later, not now. Now is for writing.

September was interesting. I bought myself a new toy in September - an iPhone. I have to say, I'm totally falling in love with it. It's just so cool! I can take pictures, check sports scores, play Angry Birds (I'm terrible at it, by the way), listen to music, keep track of my appointments, set up tasks, use it to make shopping lists, check my email, update Facebook, look at the weather report, find out how to get somewhere, text easily...it's amazing. Oh, and I didn't even mention that I can call people with it! Yes, it's a phone, too! There's a thing on it called "face time" where you can actually see the person you're talking to. MT and I tried it out the other day. I'm looking forward to talking to my sister this way as well.

My very most favorite thing that happened in September is that my BFF LA and her husband came down for a visit a couple of weekends ago. We had lunch at a fun little pub up near Big Cottonwood Canyon (or is it Little Cottonwood? I can never remember.) Anyway, it called Porcupine Grill and they make tasty food. After an enjoyable lunch, we wandered through REI and the Patagonia Outlet before heading to the mall. We were amused by the fact that even though we now actually have the funds to be able to shop at REI and Patagonia, we all scoff at the idea of spending $50 for a t-shirt.

In the evening, we went to the Real Salt Lake soccer match at Rio Tinto Stadium. RSL played and beat Sporting Kansas City. (That may just be the most stupid-est name for a sports team of all time. I'll do some research to verify.) It was a beautiful night. Check out the sunset:

After the match, there was a mini-concert by the band OneRepublic. I mentioned their song "Good Life" a few posts ago when I downloaded some new songs. However, I was duped. They do not actually say "My friends in Utah..." in the version I downloaded. Apparently that's just a radio thing to make me like the song (which I still do). On the version I have on my iPod, I just sing very loudly over the part where they sing "My friends in LA..." But in concert, they DID say "My friends in Salt Lake..." That made me feel happy. The concert was an excellent length of time. They did all the songs that I knew from the radio plus a couple of new ones, so probably about seven songs altogether. The best part was that the band was set up at one end of the pitch and the whole field was open for people to go stand on and dance around. We actually sat in the stands (LA has a quirky back and my knees are a mess). We enjoyed watching all the little kids dancing around.

LA and I have been BFF for nearly 24 years. That's just crazy! We met when we both worked at the newspaper in Poky. Her husband Rob worked with MT's brother Kelly at Blackfoot Motors. Rob liked to rock climb, and MT had seen him around the climbing places. Neither of us had kids, we were all around the same age, we liked the same stuff, and it was/is a great friendship. I feel so lucky to have her and her boys in my life!

Imagine my surprise when she walked into my house that Saturday and we were both wearing the same shirt. If that's not a connection, I don't know what is!

I was thinking about trying to write every day in October, but the real Post Every Day month is November, so I'll wait for that. I will try to do better than posting just once, though. October should be interesting, too. I've got an appointment with a knee surgeon coming up and we'll be going to California for a few days at the end of the month. Plus T is usually good for some fun posts. I'll shoot for once a week to check in. It's good to have a goal, right?!

That's all for now.