What the…?

So today, I was running late getting to Trax after clocking out a few minutes later than I normally do. Mind you, if I clock out at 4:53, I usually have one minute to spare getting to the train but today I clocked out at 4:55. I manically paced my way through the first floor from IR at University Hospital to the elevators at the Moran building, take the elevator to the first floor of the Moran building( I don't understand how the numbering of the floors is different) and then run across the street to a Trax that I KNOW is going to leave me behind. Luckily, I made it!!! I found a seat close to the front cart with a woman who was sitting with her back to me as I approached. I quickly took the seat in front of her and after I gathered my belongings on my lap, I looked up to smile and say, “Hello” and my eyes were drawn from her eyes to her forehead. “What the…?”, were the first thoughts in my head. She had a black substance smeared on her head. Trying not to stare too much, I tried to make out the design of the smear and realized, it must be Ash Wednesday because that smear looks like a cross.

The hospital I used to work at in Florida, we had a large Catholic and Christian community that participated in observing Ash Wednesday.  My co-workers would come back with the mark of the cross on their foreheads and would work all day with that black ash just smearing all over their forehead. I asked a good friend of mine why he observed Ash Wednesday and he explained to me, “For forty days, I give up something I love for Lent. This year is Facebook”. Hahaha, that still cracks me up but he was serious. He would fast and be penitent during Lent trying to feel closer to the Lord.

Here is what I found online about Ash Wednesday:

Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40-day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned.

This practice is common in much of Christendom, being celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and some Baptist denominations.

Happy Ash Wednesday everyone!!

 

Well...here it goes!

I have never in my life ever started a blog. I have read plenty of blogs, but NEVER started one, so here it is!

For those of you that know me, know from my Facebook posts that I am an avid lover of everything cupcakes. My daughter and I live for the weekends so we can bake, bake, bake! I love cupcakes! I love creating and making new flavors and mixtures...I love it! I love going to various stores and collecting cupcake holders, toppings, candies and chocolates. Kelsea is my fondant queen. She makes it from scratch using marshmallows and powdered sugar. She amazes me with the items she can create. Tomorrow she will give it her all and make flowers. I can't wait!

On the converse of my love is my absolute eternal hatred for the beast called, Trax. Trax is a train system located here in the Salt Lake valley that hauls mass amounts of people everyday to and from work, school, shopping, games, and whatever other things people need to do in this valley. The line I currently ride involves a plethora of college students and working professionals that either unload with a mass exodus at the courthouse or the U of U. So for the majority of the ride, I am shoehorned into a little area consisting with me being smashed up against the glass each morning due to people's lack of personal boundaries. Why do I put myself through this hell almost everyday of the week you might ask? The answer is simple...I'm from Florida and have never drove in the snow and parking at the U is a virtual nightmare involving jocking through the parking lot which I call Foothill Dr., making it to Mario Capecchi Dr. with out any wrecks blocking all lanes, finding the O zone parking lot which equates to BFE, and then running across an ice slick parking lot to a hopefully awaiting shuttle to bustle me up the hill to the hospital. Driving white knuckled everyday through this nightmare is something I wish I could avoid BUT I just don't trust the traffic and being late isn't an option so Trax it is. Ugh!

The purpose of this blog is to show you non-Trax riders the things I go through everyday and the cupcakes we bake. You get the good and the bad, thus my blog title. I plan on taking pictures...lots of pictures to show you the crazies that are out there. I have already seen a "clubber chick", you know, the kind that like to dress up all cute for club night even though it was 8 am. She had shaved her head and wore a wig of red and black yarn she fashioned into a ponytail wig. So help me, she did. She completed her look with jungle boots, a black baby doll dress and black lipstick. Words do not describe. Then there was today! The man sitting across from me was enjoying the ride by reading a book. I sat listening to my Zune and the various music on it. I looked out the window but saw his reflection as he stuck his chubby, fat finger in his nose. I thought, "Gross! Does he not have any cooth?". A few seconds later I found out he doesn't because he decided to drop his nose nuggets on my lunch bag that was laying on my lap. He never broke concentration from reading so I am guessing he didn't realize what he had done. I wanted to smack him over the head with my lunch bag so bad. Who does stuff like that? Needless to say, I will be buying a new lunch bag this weekend. I can't even think of putting food in it and a crust of nose nugget fall in on my food. Eww!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this blog. This is my life...for right now.