29 is a magic number

Subtitle: better report on my birthday before Christmas

About three weeks ago, I said to myself "My birthday is coming up. What shall I do to celebrate?" Then I decided I would do ANYTHING that I wanted to do. If I wanted to to to Spain, I would go to Spain. If I wanted to eat steak all day, I would. After removing all restrictions and thinking about it very hard, I decided I wanted to spend the day painting my apartment. This, I figured, would not only get something I've been excited about done, but also goes with my "new apartment, new life" theory, I figured I would start 29 out strong.

For some reason, I decided I needed a birthday self-potrait. That was silly enough, and I have no idea why the ham sandwich I"m posting it here, but I can't stop myself.
Don't judge the photo too harshly--it was 4:30 AM and I'd only had three hours of sleep because while I was laying in bed at 11:30 I'd decided I wanted to make peanut butter chocolate chip muffins for my temple shift. I'm not sure how a lack of sleep can change the shape of one's face, but I'm hoping very much that I don't usually look like that.

I worked my shift at the temple and went to work. We celebrated all the December birthdays on my birthday. Yum!

I left early and went home to paint. That day I got the taping out the edges, priming, and half of the living room done.

Richard and Becca came over for dinner and to keep me company while painting. Richard brought very tasty Indian food and Becca brought a very yummy homemade vegan birthday cake. Becca, Richard, and I met our freshmen year at college. So the celebration that evening was a combined birthday and ten year anniversary party. It was really nice.

My two very favorite presents:

My dear friend from high school Jamie sent me a Republican themed birthday package, the highlight of which is the above-pictured Ronald Reagan pen. I love it!

My parents sent me money with which I bought two glass pie pans (are you as shocked as I was to discover that I didn't already have some?) and this totally awesome welcome mat which rocks my world It makes me so happy! For example, yesterday when I was leaving to do my laundry I thought "Yay! When I get back, I'll get to see my door mat!" That, my friend, is joy.

So, all in all, it was a great day. As I spend several hours alone painting and thinking, I had an unbelievable amount of insights and discoveries about myself that were really soul-shaking. I know this is going to be the best year yet!

New Neice!

The adoption was finalized this morning so I'm an aunt again! Introducing to the world: Ashley Ann Herron

Here is an up-closer picture so you can truly appreciate her cuteness.


Ann and Josh never expected to adopt a non-infant, but this gift from God practically fell in their lap. The adjustment for all is going well and I know things are going to be great. The hearts of our family are very very thankful to Heavenly Father's loving kindness to us and to this precious little girl.

My first vlog

A vlog is a video blog. I was in one back in October 2006. For some reason, I just remembered it today and, since I just recently learned how to post videos on my blog, I've decided I"m going to post it. It is only mildly amusing, and it is super duper long, so I"m warning you, there's a good chance that you're not going to want to watch the whole thing. Or even part of it. I just want to post it and so I will because it's my blog and I can do that. Please keep in mind that this was more than two years ago.


My ex-roommate Megan (who has been married more than a year and now lives in Vegas) put it together. She is pretty much a computer movie editing superstar.

Christmas Vacation

Although I am scheduled to work on December 24th and 26th, today marked the first day of my own special Christmas Vacation.

Because even for someone as lucky as me to have such thoroughly delightful roommates, there is something completely magical about having the apartment all to myself for three weeks. Yippee!!!

I know things will be right where I left them. I don't have to worry about what time to get in the shower or if someone is going to drink all of my juice. No dirty dishes left in the sink!!! (I know, I know, that puts the "petty" in pet peeves, but it bugs me.) I can walk around in my underwear all day (my roommates are good sports about my compulsive underwear wanderings, but I do feel the need to exercise restraint when they might be around). There will be no mysteriously opened cabinets and closets. The shower thingie will always be down. I will play the piano whenever I want. I can use the blender (very important for vegan cooking) whenever I want. (Also, just FYI, I"m not really vegan anymore. I'm not a flexi-vegan who likes to avoid cheese but does eat it on occasion. I still like to vegan bake though.) I will still clean the apartment every night before going to bed, but it will only be my stuff I clean (to be honest, it was mostly my stuff even when the roomies were around). I will play music whenever I want. I can exercise in the living room morning, evening, night, whenever! Ah the joy and delight!!

Tomorrow I start the big paint project!! Hopefully I'll be able to get it all done in one day, but perhaps I"m being overly optimistic. Then I'm refinishing (this is perhaps not the right verb) a few spots on my bedroom floor and moving the bed to be in a better feng shui position. And I'm probably going to get a Christmas tree.

Ryan Simmons is my hero

If you only do one thing today, please watch the video below. It stars Ryan, a fellow in my congregation who is a comedic genius. It was put together by Collin Mapp, a fellow in my ward who, as far as I can tell from my limited exposure to his work, is a cinematic genius.

So watch. Enjoy. And share with your friends.
And to anyone within four hours of Manhattan--you do not want to miss Ryan's one-man Christmas show on the 17th.

Another One Bites the Dust

When Ashley moved into my apartment last June, she brought with her four basil plants. I was a bit skeptical because many plants had met their untimely death in my apartment. (Several, but not all of those stories have been recorded here on my blog.) But then I remembered that she's a farm girl and probably knows things I don't. It was true enough. For example: my previous plants had not gotten enough sunlight. My previous herbs had not gotten enough water. These seem like things I should have learned on Seasame Street, but somehow they had eluded me.

In September when Ashley decided flee the big city and return to her rural roots, she left the basil plants in my care. I figured all would be well--I would just keep up the same routine she had in place. For a while, I was doing pretty good. But now.... Well..... This is the end product: (please note, when I tried to save this photo on my computer so I could post it, I was told "The picture 'dead basil' already exists. Would you like to replace it?" How many different dead basil plants does one girl need save on her hard drive?)

In hindsight, I realize that I had been losing Ashley's basil plant at a steady rate of one per month. But the last remaining one had been doing so well! (Perhaps because Amelia had been in charge of his care for several days while I was out of town. He did look even perkier when I returned home.) He had gotten so big that by the time he died the whole thing could not be captured in my camera phone with enough details to also show that it had shriveled up and died.

The thing that surprises me is how quickly death came. One day it was fine, the next day it looked a little sick and the next day, it was gone. What did I do wrong? How did I fail my poor little basil? I even wrote and sang a song to Basil once I realized he was sick. Perhaps I didn't sing to him often enough. Or perhaps it was already too late. But even I was surprised at the emotion that sprang up as I sang: "You're going to live! Basil, you're going to live!! It's too soon, too soon to say goodbye." And then I would imagine Basil singing back to me: "Yes Holly, forbid me now to die! I'll obey! I will try..." But at the end, Basil, like Jean Valjean from whom I stole the song, died all the same.

So now I'm left trying to decide what to do. I NEED fresh basil for pasta sauces and my super yummy homemade salad dressing. But based on my past experience, if I bought fresh basil at the store and kept it in the fridge, it would last longer. I wonder if a chia pet herb garden would last longer. Maybe I should just plan on buying basil when I need it. That's what I do with cilantro, after all. But oh how I love the feeling of using an herb I grew myself! If my dreams of having a tomato plant cannot come to fruition, at least I should be able to cultivate an herb, right? What is up with my thumb of death? If I can't keep an herb alive how am I going to be able to take care of a husband? Or babies? I'm hoping these things do not require a similar skill set.

The rest of the story

Some of my regular readers might remember my post several weeks ago reporting on how I saved the world by reporting a suspicious smell coming out of a manhole.
I hadn't really thought anything about it until Saturday night when I ran into my associate Jon S., director of the LDS Institute of Education for the New York City region. I will report on the conversation:

Jon: Did you ever hear what happened when you phoned in that gas leak?
Holly: I don't think anything--a ConEd truck came and was there the rest of the night.
Jon: Well, a few days later they tore up the whole street and replaced lots of pipe.
[at this point I remember that Jon's office is in the church building where I reported the smell so he would be intimately familiar with repercussions caused by my call]
Jon: It must have been a million dollar construction project. Good thing you called. Your civic duty has been done.

So I guess the title I unofficially gave myself several years ago holds true--
Holly Bluemlein: Hero to Millions

I will consider that all my personal taxes for the rest of my life will be going towards that project.
(pic photo shopped by my talented sister Heather)

Something Christmas is not good for

Just so you know--

now is not the best time to be doing a decorating project because all things that could possibly be considered of use to human kind (book shelves, welcome mats, paper lanterns, shelf liner, even yoga mats) have been cleared out of all the stores (Kmart, Crate and Barrel, Pier 1, Home Depot, The Container Store, etc) to make room for cheesy Christmas decorations.