I found this sweet kitty while living in Hawaii in 2009.
Back when I was tan.

So Paula has recently thrown in her new trick with laughing. She hasn't done it much, but she has done it when it has been applicable, always laughing at something funny someone has said. Turns out, Paula also likes to do throwbacks once in a while. It isn't even Thursday!

Today at work, Paula made a noise. I didn't think much of it. I've heard all of the noises Paula has made so far. Go figure, right? Sometimes I forget that other people haven't. Stephany turned to me and said, "That was a new one!" It wasn't. I had done it before. I haven't made this particular noise in years. Sometimes I forget it hasn't surfaced in a while. As often as I hear new noises, I guess it happens even more often for others!

So in honor of Paula's throw back, here is a throwback of my own!

Whoopsie!

So I work a shift in the Salt Lake City Temple. I love this place. It is so incredibly peaceful and I love the occasions where I get to sit in silence and think. The hazard is that while I have occasions of silence, I am never fully alone. Paula decided to make her boldest appearance in the temple.

Normally she is quite respectful in the temple. It is a sacred place. In the cafeteria, however, she appears to have gotten a little carried away. Paula made a nice loud appearance tonight. She also happened to make it when my stake president walked through the door. After Paula's shouts of joy, I said hello to him. A respected leader in the church, leaned around the corner and said, "Please remember where you are."

I informed him that I had Tourette Syndrome and he instantly apologized. I love that this gentleman was instantly worried about offending me and making sure that I still felt loved after the incident. He told me, "That's great. Well, not great that you have Tourette Synndrome, but great that you let me know!" I simply laughed and said, "Really? I think it's quite great!"

He has a medical background, so he let me know that he knows what it is and that he understood, so we got to skip the medical discussion. He was so sweet about the whole thing, even putting his arms around me in a great hug. I understood when he didn't want his name to be used in the blog, but he was more than willing to let me share the story.

I'm not normally one to get chastised very often, let alone by a leader in such a reverent place! At least there is yet another advantage of having Paula around, I get to rub elbows with some pretty important people!

Throwback to the Mission

Yesterday I got to spend the day with a friend from when I served as a missionary in Hawaii. It was great fun and made me think back to several great stories before I knew Paula was Paula. Quite frankly, it was even before I knew my noises were Tourette Syndrome! I simply made noises back then, having no idea why.

Love this mission

There was one meeting where our leaders wanted to say something good about each one of us that would uplift us and help us feel better about ourselves, as serving a mission had some very difficult moments. This came from some very wise boys, considering the group consisted of 4 guys and 20 girls. When it came to my turn, the question was asked to the group, "What is our favorite thing about Sister Smith?" followed by a chorus of various chirps. It made me laugh hearing so many echos and variations of Paula.

Our wise, energetic leaders

Great people, great friendships

Many of these attempts, were a far cry from the real deal. Paula has a unique sound that is really hard to imitate. I can't imitate her noises, though I am often asked to attempt the feat. There has only ever been one person who was really able to sound like Paula. No one else has nailed the sounds coming out of my own mouth, including me!

Back then, Paula was going through a phase where the were like a creaky door taking it's time opening. These were some of the hardest noises to imitate. Most in the group chose the simple version of her noises. Even then, they were still a little off.

Sister Bolo, on the other hand, could imitate almost perfectly anything that Paula could throw at her. She hit these noises so dead on, some were never sure if it was me or her that were making the noises. As always, Paula liked the attention and gave Sister Bolo every chance she could to imitate her. Bolo was always up for the challenge and kept up quite well. As much as Paula has changed in recent years, I wonder if she is still able to keep up with Paula's sounds. I'm pretty sure she could, though.

The talented Sister Bolo (now Bacigalupi) herself

Paula Steals the Show

Whelp, she did it again.

So I have recently auditioned to be a part of a musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and get to play one of Jacob's wives. Tonight was my first rehearsal I was able to attend. I can't even tell you how good it felt to be singing in a group again! Paula was apparently excited as well. Either that or she was upset that I wasn't playing the part of a narrator. There is normally only one narrator, but there happen to be five in our particular performance. Not gonna lie, if I could have chosen a part, that would have been it.

Once we gathered everyone together (having been sectioned off before), we were singing the opening number about Jacob and his sons. Paula, being her bratty self, jumped in and sang along with the narrators. Louder than all five, I might add. While I have several friends in the room with me, a majority had no idea what was going on. Watching the confusion and a few stink eyes thrown my way, I doubled over with laughter, which only made things more confusing and got a few more stink eyes.

After we stopped singing, I got the attention of the person in charge and asked for a minute or two. I had spoken with her earlier, so she knew what was going on, and gladly gave me the floor. I made sure to let the narrators know I wasn't trying to steal their thunder, it was just so well-timed! I also told the crew to please ask any questions they had. I am SO excited to be a part of this group and this musical!

Paula is Friendly

Remember how Paula likes attention? She usually gets her share of it when making new friends. However, sometimes she likes to introduce herself at... interesting times.

At church today, the speakers were members of the new bishopric. Brother Hardin spoke first. I think I may have shaken his hand once, but haven't spent a great deal of time with him at all yet. Despite being on the back row while he was speaking, Paula decided to introduce herself. He stopped speaking for a moment, looking around. After a while, he said, "ok..." and continued with his lesson.

No one else had much of a reaction. They have all been around Paula for several months or even years. I did get a fist bump from the guy sitting next to me. Richard gave me points for pausing the sermon. Not everyone has that kind of talent, you know.

Paula introduced herself to Brother Collier as well. He, on the other hand, had the chance to chat with me before hand, and in our discussion, my book and blog and Paula came up. He knew what was going on, so he just kept speaking. I did catch a glimpse of Brother Hardin on the stand still wondering what was going on though.

After the meeting, Brother Hardin came up and gave me a hug, and apologized, saying he just learned about my condition. We had a nice little laugh over it. He had thought there was a baby in the audience. Which wouldn't make much sense, considering my congregation are all young single adults. I would have been confused if I were him as well!

Milestone!

So I just wanted to let it be known that while Paula's comedic timing may be awesome, this is something that is not controlled. If I made this kind of stuff up, I would have had an awesome blog post this morning about the milestone I hit last night in my book and she just got so excited. However, milestone moment hit and there was no Paula. What a slacker, it was such a disappointment. Especially after all her hype about wanting to be the author!

My milestone is still exciting, Paula appearance or no. I finally finished my first edit of my book! It has now been sent to my second editor, and I get some time to focus on polishing up my title, bio, cover, and all the other fun jazz that comes with writing a book! Yay me! The end is in sight!!!

I"m thinking this should be the pic I use for my official bio.
It's fitting after the editing process. What do you think?

Well that was new...

Paula still surprises me all the time. She is constantly growing and changing. At this point, I would probably refer to her as a bratty teenager. Sure, I've posted before how polite she was... but apparently that didn't stick. My roommate was sharing a story the other day and Paula interrupted her quite rudely. But I digress.

The other day, she did something new. Melanie and Brittany were exchanging stories at work. They were quite entertaining and there was much laughter involved. So much in fact, that even Paula decided to laugh. I confess, I have never heard her do that before. It encouraged a round of laughter from the rest of the team. She has also done it a few times since as well.

Paula now laughs, and apparently thinks she is quite funny. She once sang along to a song at home. No one else was around, but it made her chuckle again. It's been quite an interesting development, to say the least!