My Music on Grooveshark

Hey there. Some of you know that I like to write music. I'm no professional, but it's something that I really enjoy. A while back I spent some time (and moolah) making a recording of some of my songs. The quality isn't perfect, and some of them could DEFINITELY stand to be re-done. But, I found a way to share them! Just go to grooveshark.com and search "Cammie Beckstead" and they'll come up.

Enjoy!

Bamy

My name is Cammie. I'm from Alabamy. Well, I live here anyways. With either a church or a Waffle House on every block, this is definitely the south. Football is king--don't even think about going for a drive on game day. And campus? It's closed down for the weekend. That's right, even the library. Here in the south, the world is green and beautiful. People say "Yes, ma'am," and "Yes, sir." People ask me where I'm from and tell me I have an accent. If you don't like someone, you just say, "Bless her heart," and everyone knows what you really mean. This is my new home, and I'm loving it.

Trust in Me

Why, I wonder, is it so hard to trust people?

Today, I got a $30 parking citation. This was given to me in a Visitor's Lot on BYU campus, after I had spoken with the parking attendant girl at the booth, and she had asked me if I was a BYU student. No, I told her, I wasn't a student. She asked me if I had graduated previously (the answer is yes), and if I was a grad student at BYU (the answer is no), and then she gave me a temporary Visitor's pass for my car, as well as a razor blade to try and remove the ridiculous Y lot sticker that I can't get off my windshield. (Maybe that was what made her think I was a student in the first place.)

Anyway, I got out of my car with my backpack, ready to hit up campus for some work on my research project, and when I came back out two hours later there was a $30 citation. On the bottom of the ticket, in girly handwriting, were the words, "See parking booth attendant to avoid ticket." Turns out the ticket was issued by the same girl who had given me permission to park there in the first place, and she thought I was a liar all along.

Why would I even park in the Visitor's Lot at 8 in the morning in the summer, when I could have my pick of all the student lots around campus? Also, how weird that the girl wouldn't have just verified my non-student-ship during the initial interrogation.

Oh, well. I'm over it. I gave her my ID, and stood there somewhat smugly as she called someone to verify that I wasn't afilliated with the school. I guess it's just hard to trust people these days.

Goodbye, Friend

My friend moved away on Sunday. Things around here don't feel the same without him.

One of my friends told me something his mom said one time when they moved to a new state. She was leaving a dear friend behind and she said something like, "Don't make friends. Every time you do, you just end up having to say goodbye."

I don't share her philosophy deep down, except when I have to feel a goodbye--that emptiness--and it brings out the melodramatic in me.

I'm Happy I Was Born

1. Archie came to get me at 8:30 this morning and took me here: I had french toast and amazing syrup. Mmmmmm.




2. Walked into work. There are two lines for pick-up. The first says this:



I don't know if you can read that, but it says "Order Pick-up." The other one says "Customer Service." Only when I came in to work, dear Curt had changed out the sign to look like this:




3. Got this card at work today from my co-worker, James. He was embarrassed by it but I love it.



Check out the inside...









4. Went to lunch with my beloved co-workers, Curt, James, and Laura. Getting our food took over an hour, and in total we were away from work for about an hour and 40 minutes. It seemed okay because it was my birthday.

5. Went to a birthday bonfire at the Hansens' house in Payson. Roasted hotdogs, marshmallows, and starbursts. Maggie is my best friend and so thoughtful to get a lot of my favorite people together for my birthday.





I'm pretty sure I have the best friends and family in the whole world.

SNOW

That's right, it snowed today. It's almost June, and it snowed today. My birthday is in 3 days, and it snowed today. My birthday! Which is--it always HAS been--a "summer birthday." Meaning, I never brought cupcakes to school on my birthday. Because my birthday was during SUMMER VACATION. I don't care if the summer season doesn't officially begin until June, my birthday is a summer birthday. And it snowed today.

That said, I shouldn't complain about anything that keeps people in their homes and away from our busy Will Call office on a Monday morning. It's like a lovely little Christmas gift, in May.

I'm training for my second triathlon. Only this time, I kind of want to challenge myself and go for the Olympic one instead of the Sprint one. The sprint one was pretty comfortable, but making the jump to the Olympic one seems completely daunting. I don't want to regret not going for it, though. I was terrified of the swimming section of the sprint until I did it last year, and it wasn't bad! So I'm hoping that's how the olympic one will be, this year. Can you tell I'm still trying to fully convince myself I can do it? I still haven't registered. But I made up my training plan. Too bad I started late--it's already three weeks into what's supposed to be a 10-week plan. Whoops. I can do it though, right? I'm young! If I can't do it now, then when will I? Although, I remember learning in an Adult Development class that old people, while they decline in speed and agility, actually IMPROVE in endurance. Isn't that cool? That must be why there were so many elderly folks at last year's triathlon kicking my trash.

I went to an awesome concert on Saturday. Check out the Local Natives, if you haven't listened to them before. Also, the opening act was pretty good, too. Check out The Suckers here.

Wanna know what keeps me sane at work?

It's a fishing pole.

After working here for about 5 months, I decided I deserved a seating change. I selected a cubicle right next to favorite co-worker #1, and right across from favorite co-worker #2. Favorite co-worker #2 fashioned a fishing pole out of two wooden dowels (not sure where he found them) taped together, with a couple of shoe-laces tied end-to-end forming the line. Whenever one of us is bored, we have but to lower the line down onto the other side of the divider between our desks, and wait for the other to attach some prize. I've fished out all kinds of things. Yesterday, it was a pack of Gushers. Another day, it was a mouse pad. Once it was a cleaned-out Wendy's salad bowl (Weird, I know, but FC#2 knows I like to reuse them).

This kind of fishing is still just as thrilling as I remember it being as a kid.