Rebecca A. Foster

I'm starting to get rid of things in my apartment to make it easier when I move and open up the space. I gave away my sofa and now have a chair, ottoman and floor cushions. I pretty much had all this stuff, I just repurposed it from other rooms. I attached battery operated moon lights underneath the coffee table for a warm ambient glow at night. In the future, I'll replace that chair with something more round and less beige. Now if I could get rid of my stove/oven and get a half size fridge! I miss the stark functionality of my apartment kitchen in China. A couple of times, I cooked for 20+ in an apartment with no stove, oven, dishwasher, disposal, dining room table or full size fridge. So much of what we consider necessary, isn't.

I've been feeling very sad about how things have turned out with a friend. These things happen. And I'll get over it. But for right now, I am sad. I'm saying it out loud because there is nothing else I have to say publicly for the time being. Hindsight isn't 20/20. It's a magnifying glass. And magnifying things hurts.

The embroidery on this dress caught my eye, as well as the soft mint color, very popular this year. As you can see it is cut a bit low, so I cover up with a small lightweight, short-sleeve sweater for the office, etc. The skirt has a built in peplum underneath, so it has a very retro bell shape; I feel like I work at Sterling Cooper when I wear it. I recommend it, a very fun dress to wear. Macy's dress

My dreams sometimes tell me what people won't. Not malicious, dishonest thing necessarily, just the things they are unwilling to tell me because it's awkward, or they don't know how to say it, or they don't think I would want to know. In NO way do I believe in psychic dreams; I believe our subconscious picks up on the small facts and behaviors that our waking minds can't or won't notice and puts the pieces together for us, and this process manifests itself in dreams. I've dreamt someone I knew was married, which he neglected to tell me. (Okay, that one was a little malicious on his part.) I've dreamt someone got engaged when in fact they were dating someone else seriously without telling me (but not dating me seriously). These are more extreme examples. Other times it's realizing someone has informally 'checked out' because they met someone else they like better. I've dreamt of other people's sadness or problems and known that som...

So my arm got jacked up when an LED ceiling light fell on it IT'S A LONG STORY but the important part is I had 2012 problems, like actually emailing people short messages instead of texting them because it is really awkward to hold a phone and text all in one hand, but I learned the hard way putting the phone on the table is an awkward position to type on a touch screen keyboard and the computer keyboard is much easier but how weird is it to send short emails in 2012? So weird. Also when I was at the doctor twice this week I had to get my finger pricked and the nurse asked which hand I write with so she could prick the opposite hand and I though for a second and said, 'Neither.' It's true. I type with two hands. I write in a book at home, but that's about 5 minutes out of my day, whereas I type all the live day long. And when the doctor asked me what my job duties were to determine if I needed a doctor's note for my injury and I said, "Well, I type stuff....

Last week I went to Minneapolis, which was not only my first time in Minnesota but also my first time in the Midwest; I'd never been west of Virginia north of the Mason-Dixon. It's a fun city! Much more hippy than I thought. I now think of it as the Portland of the middle part of America. Here are a few cell phone shots; my camera shots I'll post later because I still haven't had time to go through them. City bike rental program: Downtown farmer's market: Farmer's market pickle booth: Installation art piece at the Minneapolis Institute of Art: 2-story Target in downtown Minneapolis. Target owns that city: Cool hookah at one of the boutique shops: I'm going to replace my traditional couch with something like this; wish I could have shipped this back to Utah: Barn and grain silos outside of Minneapolis: We stayed a few nights in my dream apartment, a converted industrial loft with 5 pieces of furniture in the wh...

After you date a lot of single guys, you anticipate the behavior that is normal for single men. So when you come across something that deviates, it catches your eye, as it should. It might be weird or unnecessary evasiveness, a piece of furniture or decoration that doesn't seem to be something a single guy would have in their home, just little behaviors you can't quite pin down but that don't seem to add up. My advice would be to listen to those nagging feelings that something is off. Sometimes, when you want someone not to be lying to you really badly, you'll overlook or wash under the table your gut instincts. Don't.  I've never 'outed' anyone about their deception. And luckily, it has only happened a couple of times. I just emotionally and/or physically walk away. It sucks though.

Because, yeah.

I love the new SLC campaign signs at the airport.

1. My wireless mouse 2. Paid housecleaning 3. A video iPod for traveling 4. MAC 'Underage' Lipglass 5. Bananas

If you are reading this because you know me and care about how I'm doing, thank you! I care about you too and hope we are keeping in touch in other ways besides what I write here. If you are reading this because my content matched your keyword, I have taken down posts and Google indexing hasn't caught up yet. I am considering what content I want online, and what format I want that content to be in. I'm still thinking about this. It's good to stop and think about what you're doing every now and then, eh? I spun off all of my China posts to their own site; the link is in the page links above.

My little brother is in graduate school for Speech Pathology and I was helping him practice his assessment techniques. He asked me to put the tip of my tongue on the roof of my mouth and open wide. I could barely get my teeth and lips separated. It went something like this: Him: "Okay, open." Me: *barely opens* Him: "No, like this." *touches tongue to roof of his mouth, opens wide* Me: *barely opens* "I'm trying, that's as far as it will go!" Him: "Seriously, you can't open it any farther? Well, okay..." *records something on his paper* Me: "AM I DEFORMED OR WHAT TELL ME NOW" He assured me I was deformed but it was cool, it wasn't going to hurt anything. Haha. No, he told me it was fine, it just meant my tongue was closely and firmly attached behind my bottom teeth more than other peoples' tongues and I have a high palate to boot. How did I live this long and not know my tongue is too tight?? Has anyone I...

This article from today's NYT talks about possible new firefighting tactics being tested due to the change in furniture materials over the last few decades. Today's furniture burns differently than in the past, which affects ventilation and how quickly the fire burns. It also affects how toxic the smoke is. I got interested in firefighting and emergency services when I moved out on my own and realized I was now solely responsible for my safety in my home. Luckily I lived across the street from a firehouse with some really friendly guys who worked there so I had the chance to talk to them about it. I was also interested in it from a community standpoint, because I was doing work with refugees and other non-English speakers. I got a chance to talk to some firefighters in a forum about my questions and they also taught me a lot. It helped me feel more safe to understand what causes fires and how they are put out. (How they are put out: call 911.)  Just like after my dad d...