Docusession - It's a real disease

I'm just going to start this post as though I haven't been MIA from the blog world in over 4 months, with one quick exception... My Dad is doing well. After a few weeks in the hospital and surgery he is recovering from the scary heart issue from New Year's Eve. Now, on to the new stuff.

Lately I've become obsessed with watching documentaries on Netflix. I can't stop myself! I'm documentary obsessed, or you may even say I'm suffering from ducusession (see what I did there?!). It's late - get over it. Anyways, here is a list of my recent (and not so recent) favorites.

• Stuck
• The Woman Who Wasn't There
• China's Lost Girls
• It's a Girl
• Blackfish
• The Cove
• Confessions: Animal Hoarding
• I'm Alive

Start watching immediately! :)

We've Got a Pulse

The last few days I've been thinking a lot about my life. Mostly because I've been a little concerned that I've lost my "zeal" for life. Not talking about depression or anything, but just kind of going through the motions of life without truly enjoying it or making the most out of my days. I find myself spending way too many nights and weekends hanging out at my house alone instead of pushing myself to be social and develop genuine friendships.

It's been almost two years now since I moved back to St. George and although a lot of really amazing things have happened to me since moving back to my hometown (lots of family time, buying my first home, adopting my 2 cats and puppy - just to name a few) I still find myself questioning that decision. To be honest, I miss my life in LA a lot more that I thought I would. Let me clarify that last statement. I miss my friends so much!! Even when my work schedule was horrible I had such good friends out there to help me deal with all the craziness. I miss being surrounded by other young professionals. I didn't realize how much of an impact that had on my life until I moved away from it. I miss feeling like there were so many possibilities ahead of me. I miss adults that realize people my age aren't actually children that need to be chaperoned/micro-managed. I miss meeting good guys I actually find attractive. I miss people who know what CPA means and what it takes to get it.

Don't get me wrong, it's easy to focus on all the positive sides of LA when I compare my life then and now. And I realize how lucky I am to have found what really is my dream job so early in my career. I think it's just the fact that so much of my life is already laid out for me at such a young age. Maybe it's just boredom. Maybe I just need to make big life changes every two years. Maybe the terrible fever I had yesterday messed with my head. Who knows. Those are just some of the thoughts that have been running through my head the last couple of days.

*  *  *

I did get some reassurance that I made the right decision to move back to St. George earlier today. This afternoon I listened to a voicemail telling me my Dad had a heart attack at work and was taken in an ambulance to the ER. Anyone who knows me well will know that my instant reaction was to start sobbing before the message was even over. Needless to say it's been a LONG day. After spending hours in the ER having so many tests run we didn't really learn anything except the fact that we know nothing. Sound confusing? Well basically after looking at all the test results the doctor wasn't sure what caused today's event or even if it really was a heart attack. What we do know is that when he went down (as he was getting back to work after his lunch break) he had no pulse for 10 minutes while his coworkers did CPR to try to revive him. Thankfully after those 10 minutes, they were able to get a pulse right as the ambulance was getting there. So, something happened.... we just have no idea what. After all the tests in the ER he was admitted to the hospital where they're talking about keeping him for a week or so to run a bunch more tests and try to figure out what's going on with him and how to prevent this from happening again. The only other thing we really know is that during CPR they broke a few of his ribs, but all the doctors said that if they were doing CPR correctly that was bound to happen. I mean, he is a pretty big guy so I'm sure giving him CPR was no easy task. It's crazy though, because if you saw him you would never think he was essentially dead for 10 minutes today. He looks too good.

Needless to say, although it wasn't the way I was expecting 2013 to end, I'm just really grateful my Dad is still here. It's a lot easier to heal a few broken ribs than the alternative. I'm grateful to live here and be able to be there when stuff like this happens. Being close to family was a big reason I wanted to move back to St. George and in an extreme way today was a reminder of that.

Here's to hoping 2014 turns out be be a year of health and happiness for me and my family. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I am not an overachiever.

I feel like this post is coming off a little like a rant, and that is not my intention. However, this is a topic I feel quite passionately about and this post is the result of those feelings.

Tonight at FHE I was called an overachiever by one of the adult men. This was not meant as an insult of course, but rather as a description of why I'm probably intimidating to guys. Please note, we were not discussing guys or my dating life when he said this, it was just something that came into his mind, so he said it. Also, to help give some context, I did walk straight up to the adults to join in their conversation. But let's face it, in a lot of ways I have more in common with the grown adults/leaders then with some of the other people in my ward. While my college days were some of the best times of my life, that's just not my reality anymore. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE reminiscing about my college years with my friends who were there with me on those adventures. But at this point in life I don't want to live in the past. I want to live in the present and work for my future. So, back to the comment. Not typically one to keep quiet about something so grossly misstated about myself, I quickly corrected this man and told him that I was not an overachiever. I did not graduate from high school or college early. Sure, I graduated from college with my bachelor's and master's degree in a total of 5 years, but that wasn't rare. That was just how the program I was in was designed. I didn't take any shortcuts. And after college I started working full time in my career which, with some twists and turns, brought me to where I am today. Again, I emphasize, no shortcuts. When I corrected this man and said "I am not an overachiever" I provide the correct description of "I am an achiever". I don't care about being the first, or the best, or whatever. I have an idea of what I want for my life and I try to make choices that will get me where I want to be. That is all. I recognize that this way of thinking is not for everyone and that's great. And please don't misinterpret this to mean that if you didn't take the same steps I did that I believe you are an underachiever. I do not think or feel that way. We all have different paths and different goals we want to achieve. I just hate when society acts like progression without massive setbacks or delays is a rarity. I am not an exception. I'm just trying to make a good life for myself and doing what I feel I need to in order for that to happen.

Walking down my path does not make me an overachiever. I'm simply trying to achieve my goals as I'm working to get to where I want to end up. So here I am - just walking along, trying to find someone I want to walk along with, and hoping I don't trip as I'm looking out at the scenery.

Rant (and imagery) over.

If you need me, I'll be in the backyard.

I swear I could just sit out on my back patio all day just swinging away and staring out at the sky and all the trees blossoming. It's just so peaceful and calm.

I need a vacation.

Life of a single girl

Two recent and funny stories about the adventures of a single working girl (the business professional kind - not the hooker kind).

A week ago when I was signing the deed for my new house the deed read as follows, "Genna Mugleston, an unmarried woman ..." No joke. I started laughing and of course making jokes about it when I saw that. Nothing like having your singleness permanently recorded.

Then today while cleaning the carpets at my new house the guy turns to me out of the blue and goes "So long have you been married?" I let out a little laugh and told him I wasn't married and he goes "oh then I need to find someone to set you up with." Note that I'd never met this man before this morning. The take away from this story is that even strangers are starting to feel the need to help me find a date. Lovely.

Seriously? Seriously?????

You know what I love..... The only time I run into the one guy I find attractive is after I've spent the last 12 hours painting and cleaning my new house, while wearing ugly/unflattering sweats that I didn't care if I got paint on, and with yesterday's hair and whatever makeup made it through last night and didn't get rubbed off this morning. Oh and don't worry I was also wearing slippers that still had pieces of old wallpaper stuck to the bottom of them. And in between the capri sweats and slippers were some super sexy hair legs. Awesome. #single4life