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I am so glad I'm not in junior high anymore...

Last week, I was sent an email from an 8th grade science teacher at Midway Middle School asking for volunteers to help judge a science fair. Of course, I jumped at the chance! So this afternoon, I headed over to Hewitt, TX (a 7-minute drive) to look at posters. I checked in at the front office with my driver's license, and they gave me this visitor's pass (I photoshopped my last name out):


Cool huh?! They scanned my driver's license and put my picture on my visitor's sticker. Then, when I left, I had to scan that little bar code at a scanner right outside the office to "sign out." It was very high-tech (as far as a volunteer check-in goes, anyway) and made me realize how much has changed since I was in junior high!

Anyway, I got to grade/rank posters from the "Health and Behavioral Science/Physiology/Social Science" division, which means they were all the heart rate, memory, and survey posters. I was surprised at the level of effort that was put into most of the projects, and was even more surprised at the level of intelligence needed for the posters that made it into the Regional Science Fair. I was assigned 10 posters, rated them on a 100-pt scale, then came up with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place posters. Overall, it was a fun experience.

On a completely unrelated note, my best friend Jenna's book comes out in March. If you like baseball, know someone who likes baseball, or know someone who knows someone who likes baseball, buy this book!

For Stephanie

Gratitude Attitude #42: Stephanie Dickson and her sweet self. Steph sent me a page-a-day origami calendar for Christmas (best present ever!) and I can't stop making things! Here is the first half of January (when I wasn't folding the "basics," which are bases that you can build off of). Clockwise from the top, there's a mouse, a chicken that pecks when you move it's wings, a fox, a dinosaur, a bird, a fish (on it's chin; it wouldn't stand up), a cup, and a party hat. I love it! Thanks, Stephanie! :) (Oh, and congrats on the house! Can't wait to see it!)

Saba Diners Beware!

Let me start this off by saying that I'm a reasonable person (mom and Aunt Heide, no comments from the peanut gallery). I don't frequently have altercations with people, and when I do, usually it's for justifiable reasons.

That being said, I had the WORST dining experience ever at Saba Blue Water Cafe in Austin, TX.

We (six of us: me, Max1, Holly, her fiance Peter, Max2, and his roommate Eric) went to a restaurant that had a two-hour wait, and because we were all starving, we decided to skip that restaurant and find one more suitable for quicker consumption. We ended up at Saba Blue Water Cafe, who told us that the wait would be 30ish minutes. We figured this would be acceptable and proceeded to the bar to wait. We waited at the bar and Peter attempted to order drinks for him and Holly, but alas, the lone bartender seemed to be overwhelmed with customers. Peter was finally able to order and got his drinks after 15 minutes (yes, 15) when Max1 attempted to get drinks. I use "attempted," as the bartender not only was working by herself, she had obviously never been asked to make multiple drinks at a time. She had to serve drink-by-drink because she couldn't remember the order, and the lady next to me was actually given a wrong drink due to the bartender's lack of memory. At this point, we all had drinks (Max1 and Holly weren't happy with their drinks' alcoholic content; I think she wasn't paying attention when pouring mine and thus it was almost all alcohol). I'd say we were waiting at least an hour (this is a conservative estimate) when Brently, the host, finally seated us.

At a dirty table.

We fit six people at a four-person booth/table (adding one chair and fitting the two Maxes and Eric on the booth side) and waited patiently for a nonexistent buss-person to clean off the table. I ended up asking Host Brently to wipe off the table, and he agreed to get someone to come clean it. In the meantime, our waitress (whose name I never caught but that's probably a good thing) came to get our drink orders. She mentioned that there seemed to be a bit of a wait at the bar (no kidding) and that if we wanted drinks, we should order them now. Holly, Peter, Max1, and I had already ordered our drinks when Max2 recommended we just split a bottle of wine instead. We agreed, and Max2 ordered a bottle of wine.

Here is where we all laugh about how horrible the service seems to be, not realizing the ominous situation.

Someone came out and finally wiped off our table, and then Waitress arrived uncharacteristically quick (for Saba Blue Water Cafe, anyway) with our drink order. We had implied that we didn't want out original orders and that the bottle of wine would replace the orders, but we laughed it off and figured it was our faults for not explicitly stating it. So we see Waitress, who turns the corner and proceeds to spill Holly's original drink order--a glass of red wine--all over Max1 (I'll point out here that she actually spilled all the drinks, but the red wine is the one that pissed me off the most). It spills on his left arm, left leg, and left shoe. It splashes across the table (and across Max1) all over my white tank top (fuck), and also splashes on Max2's white button-down shirt. Waitress literally looks down, looks up, and walks away.

We're all half laughing and half thinking "What the fuck just happened?!" while trying to figure out how we can help Max1 with his red wine-soaked attire. Someone (I missed who) brought over a clean wet rag for him to clean up, a lady overlooking us from the bar brings over four napkins (which made me laugh profusely), and Brently comes to wipe off our table like we originally had asked, wondering why Max1 is all wet. Brently asks if everything is okay, and Max1 nicely says no, we just got red wine spilled all over us. Brently asks if Waitress apologized, and I say no, she ran away. He says that her response was inexcusable, and she comes back to apologize. Actually, she said, "I don't know what to say...I wish I had that exact same shirt in the back to give to you" to Max1, as if that was an apology.

At this point, I'm laughing uncontrollably because Eric was just talking about leaving the restaurant due to bad service, and this was before the red wine was spilled. Waitress comes back with a bottle of wine and six glasses. I flinch when she walks next to me (completely on accident) and she makes a sarcastic comment about me backing away. Seriously lady? Anyway, she pours a bit of wine for Max2 to try, and when he deems it acceptable, she pours the wine into five glasses, skipping Max2's glass and yet topping off the rest of the five. We all laugh at our misfortune of the evening and chalk it up to a bad night, but figure we'll stay and order tapas anyway (the original reason why we came to the shitty restaurant in the first place). We all chose an appetizer and figure we'll just split it amongst the table. We wait...and wait...and wait...and Waitress still hasn't come for our order. We then decide that we'll finish our drinks and leave, as we're pretty pissed that we can't order and figure that if we get food, it would take another hour to get it.

I will point out here that we did not take advantage of this waitress, ordering as much as we could after getting red wine spilled on us. We actually did not order anything else after we got red wine spilled on us. We ask for the check, and she charges us for everything minus one glass of wine.

Are you kidding me? You spilled red wine on three people (poor Max1 who is soaked) and you're charging us?! I know that somebody has to pay for things, but we weren't trying to take advantage of anybody. Apparently our shocked faces were indicative, as Waitress took off another glass of wine, but seriously? We pay in cash because we don't want to wait for her to come back with a credit card (Max1 was pissed we left $50 for a $46 tab) and on the way out, I mention to Brently how ridiculous the evening was and how appalled we were that we were even charged for this experience. We would've talked to a manager if we even could get ahold of one. Brently agrees that Waitress is an idiot (okay, in nicer terms) and asks us to wait. He then writes on the back of a business card that we should come back and eat/drink for free on him. Seriously? You want us to come back?

Never go to Saba Blue Water Cafe in Austin, TX. You were warned!

My shirt. The red wine is splashed in a diagonal across my chest, and it was on the back of the shirt too (who knows how). On my new, only-worn-once-before tank top.

A close-up of some of the red wine.

Business card of the worst restaurant ever.

Thanks, Brently. Yeah, I'm sure we'll take advantage of this.

Gratitude Attitude #41: The fact that we didn't order food at Saba Blue Water Cafe, the worst restaurant ever. Why am I thankful? Max1 pointed out how we could've gotten food poisoning. Always look on the bright side of life, doo doot, doo doot doo doot doo doot...

Oh my gosh!

I WANT ONE!

My birthday is in April, people. Take note. Size S.

Is it just me...

Is it just me, or does John Malkovich (Mom's right; that's not director Sam Raimi) look like Uncle Dennis?

Don't Talk to Cops!

If you have a good half an hour, watch this.

If you have another 20 minutes, watch this. It's the police officer's response to Professor Duane's speech.

Moral of the story: If for any reason you're getting questioned by the police, regardless of your innocence, do not talk to them as even if you tell the entire truth, anything you say can and will be used against you in court!

2009 in pictures!

Stealing from Lisa's blog, I present 2009 through Sarah's eyes!

January started off in Bremerton, WA on a beautiful snowy day.

February, I got to start working with my First Pres youth by going to SHYC. I get to go again this year and I cannot wait! Here's the women from our small-group at SHYC.

Daddy came to visit in March for spring break, and I popped a tire on the way to Galveston. Whoops.

April came with my 23rd birthday and a viewing of Hannah Montana with some of my favorite First Pres-ers.

May was a horrible month, and I don't remember much. This picture was actually taken two weeks ago when I was in Washington for winter break, but I don't have any from May and this was a defining moment of 2009.

I don't remember much of June, but I did go skydiving in Christopher's honor!

July was also a blur, but I was distracted by Planned Parenthood's awesome summer youth program.

I don't think I did much in August. Mom came to visit, but I can't find the pictures! So here is a picture of me, Alexis, and Spencer on a mini road trip.

I'm pretty lame, as I cannot remember anything from May to October... this is September, at the Margarita and Salsa Festival.

Notes from Crazy Lady in October due to my plumbing and her lack of sanity.

Mom, dad, AND Scotty came to visit in November for Thanksgiving!

December was great, as I got to see my family--especially my sister Katie!

So yeah, that was a quick review of Sar's 2009!

Gratitude Attitude #40: Life. Here I am, seven months after Christopher's death, and I'm still alive and kicking. I'm okay. I'm still sad and angry and pissed and heartbroken, but I'm definitely alive, even if I can't remember anything for the life of me. I'm lucky to have my family, Christopher's family (which is my family--by heart anyway), the Rodgers, chosen family at First Pres, etc. for unlimited hugs (when we're in the same state), tons of phone calls, and reassurance that although things will never be the same again, Chris is making sure I'm okay. :)