A best friend i'd rather not have

So i'm still a burden on society. Well, maybe not society yet, but still to Heather and Eric because i'm still unemployed. However, just because i'm not good enough for Kohls, Target, Stop and Shop, Best Buy, or any other local business, doesn't mean i still don't know how to make some money while i'm continually waiting for calls back from the previously mentioned places. I put up a babysitting flyer and i got a call to dog sit. Baby's and dogs really aren't all that different, both drool and poop, so i figured, what the heck. Oh man, only later did i come to realize that some people love their dogs more than they might love a baby and that my friends, is the lady i'm dog sitting for. She's a very nice lady. Very easy to get a long with and talk to but VERY VERY much a dog person. Not just any dog person, a wiener dog person. I always thought that it might be fun to have a wiener dog and name it Oscar, until today. She has 2 of them. THeir names are Ricky and Lucy (sound familiar?!?) I don't really know much about dogs, never having had one before, but i feel like taking them out about every 2 hours is a bit much for such little dogs. Their bladders can't hold that much and i know for a fact that they don't eat enough to have to go to the bathroom that often, because she has them on a diet. They also have Coach dog collars and leashes. That's a waste of money if you ask me. After reading this you'd think that i'd been watching these dogs for a week now, but really it's only been half a day. I still have 6 more days to go and i'm already tired of the little rats. The couple left around 2:30 p.m. today for their trip and at approximately 8:30 (what is that? 6 hours later??) i recieve a call from the lady asking how they are doing, and how they are reacting to her and her husband being gone, how they are eating, if they seem sad or not, and so on and so forth. That's a bit much for me. I always thougth that maybe in the future if i married someone who REALLY wanted a dog or maybe if my kids someday asked enough times i'd get them one, but nope, the jury has made it's decision...i will never own a dog. (and that in turn means i will never have to worry about hair on my couch!)

I'm a Klepto

Hello. My name is Brooke Tolman and i'm a kleptomaniac. There. It's out in the open. I looked up the definition today on wikipedia and it said, someone who steals uncontrollably without realization. Those who know me well and have spent quite a bit of time with me may want to inventory your stuff because i may have taken it. I wouldn't be able to tell you though because i do it subconsciously. I was watching the 3rd season of 24 back when i was in Provo and i opened up my computer today to put a movie in and lo and behold there was the last disk. I stole it from Amy. Not on purpose though, but that is every kleptos excuse. And acouple weeks ago when i was looking through my movies i noticed one that wasn't mine. It was Caitlin's. I kleptoed Akeelah and the Bee from her. No wonder she doesn't want to be my roommate next year. I get it now, everything in life makes sense now that i know i'm a kleptomaniac. I haven't found anything else that isn't mine in my stuff yet, but there's probably more, so if you find something of yours missing, you can blame it on me.

Cutting corners

So i've decided i'm too lazy to put up my own pictures of New York, however, i will provide a link to Heather and Eric's blog which contain most of our pictures from New York. So here it is ericandheathernelson.blogspot.com! Enjoy! And not only do they give you the pictures, but Heather has done a wonderful job of summing up our activities of the trip!

Please strut on the left

Before i begin writing my thoughts on New York City, i'd like to print a retraction because i've had some complaints. Apparently the picture in the post below isn't sufficiently cute enough of my niece (so i've been told by her parents) that they've sent me replacement pictures for it. Now it's true, it's not the best picture of her, however, i still think it is dang cute, but since i'm such a crowd pleaser, here is another photo to show, once again, just how dang cute she is.

So this past weekend was my first time to New York City. An experience that everyone should take part in at least once in their life times. It's a whole different world. We took the subway to go see the Statue of Liberty and walking in the train station it reminded me of when my family went to London a few years ago. In London we took the train to get a lot of different places and we thought it was so funny because there was this automated announcer guy that you could hear all over the station that kept saying, "Please strut on the left" in this thick british accent. It took us a few times to catch what he was saying but after we figured it out it became one of the many jokes of the trip. As i remember it though, the people followed the directions of this automated voice, everyone was really good at walking on the left side. I remember this while we were in New York because it was just a mad house at Grand Central Station. Every man for himself. Even though there were signs saying 'keep to the left' everywhere, really if you had kept to the left the whole entire time you would've been trampled. So I've come to the conclusion that either British people are much better at following directions or that the majority of New Yorkers are illiterate so they can't read the signs, thus don't follow the walk to your left rule. Maybe New York should look into getting an announcement that plays over the entire station saying, " Don't swagger on the left", maybe then it wouldn't be such an ordeal to get to where your going.

Check back eventually for pictures of New York!

Stay thirsty my friend!

Dude, i'm on like a blogging HIGH lately. Now that we've established that i have no life out of cyberspace (although i did go to the movies tonight with some new friends..suprised??) I've decided, after much study and research in California that i did for that first week in May, to clue everyone in on just a couple of the reasons why everyone wants to live in California.

Number 1: The palm trees
I think you can count on one hand the number of states that have palm trees, which include Arizona, Florida, and Nevada and who really wants to live in those states? I'd choose California over them anyday.

Number 2: Cute babies
Although really, cute babies don't come from california they come from the Tolman family, but since my very beautiful neice lives in cali currently, we'll give it to them for now.


Number 3: The Putting Greens
California is where all the high class, rich people live and what is a rich persons favorite thing to do?? Golf! So of course they have nicely manicured putting greens!


Number 4: Finally last but definitley the best of all the reasons to live in California...John Wayne made of Lint!
Need i really explains?? Does it get any better than this my friends??


But for real, my trip to california exceeded my highest expectations! I mean, i ate gelato and saw dolphins for the first time in my life, i mastered Mario-Kart and proceeded to whoop Lance in it every night i was there (even Jess occasionally), i got to lay out at the pool, eat at Roscoe's House of Chicken' n Waffles, put my hand in Denzel Washingtons handprints, and best of all, have my niece fall asleep on my chest everynight (best feeling in the world!). So thanks Lance and Jess for a fantastic vacation! You guys are the best!

Cinderella dressed in yellow...

I have officially taken up a new hobby for the summer. Jumproping. I've read in so many places that it's great for your health, a good way to build endurance AND tone those muscles (2 things i could definitley use) so i decided to give it a try. Last night i made a quick stop at wal-mart and picked up my very own jumprope...(and 2 movies for $8, what a deal!!) Anyways, this morning i woke up bright and early and hopped out of bed because i was just so excited to test it out. I use to be pretty dang super at it when i was little so i figured this would be cake, needless to say, it's tougher then it looks. It took me all morning, a break, and then part of the afternoon to get up to 50 consecutive jumps! But no worries by the end of the summer i'll be jumping for hours at a time and have mastered tricks like this, no sweat.

The problem with sleeping

I do all my best thinking, in those moments right before i go to sleep. That, my friend, poses a problem...i never remember the genius ideas that i come up as i'm slipping under. For example, today as i was falling asleep for my daily nap (another perk of being a mom, when Ethan naps, so do Heather and I.) so anyways, while i was falling asleep before my nap, i came up with this great name for my blog address because lets face it, brooketolman.blogspot.com is sort of lame, and now i can't remember it. The only thing i remember is that i was very pleased with myself for being so witty and what a genius idea it was. I should really start writing these genius ideas down, because that is only one of many brilliant thoughts i've had while falling to sleep.

Obviously you can tell i'm really great at this blogging thing. So, I could start writing about all the things i should have been writing about in the past month, or i could just say that the past month has been pretty great and go from there.

So I have a new found respect for mothers. After living with my sister for merely a week, i don't know how she does it. How is it that a mother loves there child enough to take care of them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? I mean, don't get me wrong, i love my nephew a lot, but after babysitting for him 2 nights in a row, i was ready for a break. And plus, as a mom, you have to get bored being home ALL day long. You can only clean your house, go to the park, and take a walk so many times during the day. If you haven't already guessed, i'm very much ready to get a job...anywhere that will take me!

So a funny story continuing on the topic of moms, my sister is pregnant and due in July so clearly she wears maternity clothes. Well, she was wearing this pair of khaki shorts that looked really comfy, so i commented on how comfy they looked and she went on to tell me that she bought them from Old Navy a couple weeks back. Well, not too many days later that week, we took a little trek (and i call it a trek because when you have a baby you take like the whole house with you anytime you leave) to the mall and ended up in Old Navy. And lets just say after trying them on once, i'm the proud owner of my first pair of maternity shorts because they are the comfiest thing ever! I got a funny look from the checkout lady when i was buying them. And to my defense, they don't even really look like maternity shorts, you really can't tell the difference besides a tiny bit of elastic at the top of the waistband. But frankly, who cares...this is a good deal, these shorts will last me until and beyond when i'm pregant which will definitley be awhile from now.

This Jerry Seinfeld quote pretty much sums up my life right now: "I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything."