I'm rubber, you're glue

I don't do well when I'm startled. If someone says something horrible in my presence, I usually have no idea how to react. I get flustered and stay silent. Or act like it's okay.

I'm not sure if Los Angeles is making me an angrier person, but I'm getting better in these situations. Every time something cruddy happens to me, I take note of it. I digest the information, let the incident marinate awhile, and come up with a "what I should have done" plan. This makes me better prepared to handle whatever else comes my way.

Speaking of which ...

My trip to Montana last December went fantastically well. I found purpose in life (weird, seeing as I should have been in a food coma) and had a great time hanging out with my family and friends.

Unfortunately, an obnoxious child kicked my good spirits in the nuts.

Browsing the aisles of some chain store in a sterile mall, a 5 year-old turned to her mother, pointed at me, and said, "That lady is UGLY!"*

First of all, holy self-esteem killer! Second, what kind of mother doesn't apologize when that happens?! Third, GAAAAAAAAH!

I wish I'd said something. I didn't. I stayed silent, not sure that what I thought had happened had *actually* happened.

This year, I am prepared for naughty child antics. My response will be:

"Santa is a lie."

*Unlike the demon-spawn and her family members, I have dark brown hair and light olive skin. They were rather Arian. I assume this was her issue with my appearance. I have just enough self-esteem to know I'm not a hideous beast. I think.

Catching up...#4? I think. Maybe.

My boyfriend, guinea pig, and I spent an extended winter break in Montana. I should warn you, the photos below highlight the sexy, fast-paced existence that is small-town Montana.

Enjoy...

Between Los Angeles and Vegas, we saw this:

Snow? Weird.

Later that day we were forced to stop in Utah, thanks to a major snowstorm. Sadly, I didn't get any photos of the ginormous snowflakes. But, I DID pick up a gift for a friend...

It was a book written by a Mormon, published in Utah. It was called, "Understanding Women," and MAN was it sexist. I thought it would make a fantastic gag-gift.

When we escaped Utah and finally made it up to Montana, this guy greeted me at my parents' house:

Domo.

The temperature was in the negative degrees, so most of our activities occurred indoors. Luckily, the glow of my fam's nuclear Christmas tree was rather soothing, so I didn't mind staring at it for hours at a time.


After some chillin' with the fam, we went to see Benjamin Button. When my boyfriend and I went into the theater, the roads were clear. When we came out after the movie, everything was covered with a thick layer of snow.

When we got home, my parents' porch looked like this:


Here's the view from their front door:


Remember - I got home from the movie, walked through the house to photograph the porch, then came back outside to snap a shot of the front. This is the car I drove home in, minutes after driving it:


After that, I hung out with my family in the living room. Enjoy the photo of my dog making a face, and my little brother's foot.

Two things: 1) Pictures of feet totally gross me out, so I'm sorry for that. 2) I wanted to show off the fact that my dog matches the carpet, so feet photos were hard to avoid.

Seriously though, I love my dog. She's awesome. And, she loves the snow:


A few days into the trip some friends and I decided to pity heckle Screech - The Nerds of Comedy Tour hit my town, and really, there wasn't anything else to do.



I think "J" had fun, don't you?


"A" looked annoyed. As she should. We were forced to sit through a "My German Shepard totally doesn't understand me. He doesn't speak ENGLISH!" joke. We died a little bit then, on the inside. (I should note that the joke did not come from Screech. He deserves credit for that.)

Ladies and Gentleman...Screech:


Apparently all of the painful humor made "A" hungry:


In order to save myself, I suggested we get cheese fries. Here's "J"'s post-fry glow:


I spent a lot of time in bars on this trip. I didn't spend a lot of time drinking, there just weren't many places to go and it was freaking cold outside. Here's "A" at a bar that has mermaids. Yes, mermaids - they seriously have people dressed as mermaids in a tank of water. I think "A" is judging them:


A few days after that, "A"and I got makeovers at the Laura Mercier shop in one of the college towns. I think she looks lovely:

We had sushi in the college town. Luckily it was quite good, surprisingly.

"T" at the start of a post-sushi food coma:


Here I am greeting 2009. Either someone slipped uranium in my drink, or my phone's flash makes me look radioactive:
The trip itself was fantastic, but the drive home was utter hell. Let me introduce you to the sheet of ice we got to brave at 15 miles an hour:

See the shine? That stuff was *slick.* Any faster and we began to slide. It added several hours to the trip.

Thank goodness the scenery was gorgeous:

Not terribly exciting, but it was a good time. :) At least we got home safe, despite the hellish roads.