Have you ever tried a food and been unable to decide with one bite whether or not you liked it? You took another bite and still couldn't tell, so you took another and so on and so on. Sometimes you can finish eating it and still not be sure you liked it. You've ruled out that you hate it, but do you actually enjoy it?

Well, that is me and the TV show The Office. I've heard all the buzz, but I never really felt compelled to watch it myself. I try to avoid watching new shows because if I do like them then that is just one more show I have to find time to watch.

But then a week or two ago, I noticed that my public library had the first two seasons on DVD. So I figured it couldn't hurt to check it out. It was free, which is often a good incentive.

So I started watching an episode or two each night after work, and I really couldn't say if I liked it. It's possible I really hated it, but I kept watching anyway. By the second to last episode of the second season, I still hadn't formed an opinion.

I like aspects of it; I don't like others. I'm a fan of Steve Carell, but the character of Michael Scott is SO annoying that I have a hard time watching him. I guess his acting is too good for me.

However, I think what really kept me watching was the Jim and Pam storyline. What can I say, I have a romantic side deep down. And with the extreme cliffhanger ending of the final episode of the second season, which I won't spoil for anyone who might have not seen it ... I think I'm hooked. I am going crazy waiting until I can get my hands on the third season.

I don't hate The Office. I don't love The Office. But I am watching The Office.

Want to learn something I bet very few people know about me?

I breed alpacas. That's right. Autumn Hill Alpacas, check it out folks. This is not a joke. Although, technically I am not associated with this company in any way shape or form, name aside.

As the word Google evolved into a verb, I joined the ranks of the curious and used the search engine to "Google" myself. However, I am a very difficult person to Google.

I've always been told my name makes me sound like an apartment complex or housing development, and I've never disputed that. It's very true, but I love my name so I don't care. But apparently, I am not the only person who thinks Autumn and Hill go well together.

When I Google "Autumn Hill" I get a whole list of companies. It turns out I am quite the entrepreneur and I never knew it. Along with my alpaca farm, I own my very own vineyard, landscaping company, nursery, graphic design firm and equestrian center. That is not including the other animals I breed (like llamas) and various farms I own. At one point I had a nursing home as well, but when I checked today it was no longer listed. Sorry to all the octogenarians out there.

While I love the fact that my name is associated with something as random as alpacas, it is interesting to think that proving my existence on the World Wide Web takes a lot of work. If you add BYU-Idaho after my name, you can find a couple of hits with old Scroll articles I've written, but that's it.

So while you may never get anything on me from the Internet, please do think of me for any and all of your alpaca-related needs.

Not too long ago on Facebook my status made mention several times of a performer named James Barbour. Many people asked me who he was and what I meant by my comments. This is my explanation.

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of musicals. I recently "discovered" the musical "Jane Eyre," and was introduced to James Barbour's voice through that. And there was just something about it that freaked me out. And by that I don't mean it scared me, it just made me freak out each time I heard it.

There are a lot of shows I love and a lot of performers I consider to be nothing short of amazing, but I have never reacted that strongly before. I really did scare myself a bit, because I didn't understand the reason. I still don't understand why, but I have at least temporarily coined a term for it.

James Barbour is my vocal soul mate. Something about his voice just...just resonates within me, in a way no voice has ever done before. I don't know how else to say it, as all my knowledge of words has failed me in trying to explain the pull his voice has for me.

I am sure this makes me very strange, which my father has confirmed, but it is what it is. My father did point out that soul mates has mutual connotations, and I highly doubt that were James Barbour ever to hear my voice it would affect him the way his does me. But until I come up with something better, I am sticking with soul mate.

For those of you who are curious to hear the voice that makes me shriek and shiver involuntarily each time I hear it, I am providing you a chance. I am including a YouTube video of a song I think he really shines in. Please ignore the clips attached to the song, they have nothing to do with it.

Finale (There's Always a Tomorrow) from Frank Wildhorn's Dracula, performed by James Barbour and Kate Shindle

I was driving home from work the other day, and somehow my thoughts strayed to laughter. I love to laugh, whatever the occasion, laughing is just fun. But more than laughing what I love is making others laugh. There is a natural high involved in hearing a sincere laugh from someone as a direct result of something I said or did.

On that note, I wouldn't really say I am a funny person — I am no comedian. The times when I try to be funny are the times I most definitely fail. I had to recognize that a big part of the reason I make people laugh is because I'm such a klutz.

I have always been an extremely awkward person. I have many good qualities and abilities and all that, but grace is one thing I have never been blessed with. It has always seemed that, physically, things that seem to come naturally to everyone else never quite do for me. Things like, well walking, playing any sport and most especially dancing. I love to watch old movie musicals with the likes of Fred Astaire, along with newer shows like "So You Think You Can Dance", and part of the reason is that I have an immense respect (and envy) for how those people seem so at ease with their own bodies.

But going back to my earlier point, this extreme lack of grace leads me into a large number of interesting situations. Not a day goes by that I don't trip on nothing, run into everything and everyone, and have something I touch fall down three or four times in a row as I try to stabilize it.

If the only laughter I elicited was from people who were laughing directly at me because of something foolish I'd done, I doubt I would feel such euphoria. But I think the fact that I have grown past the point of embarrassment and reached a place of acceptance makes all the difference.

I know I'm accident prone, and even I think it's funny. When I manage to get poked in the eye by the lid of someone's baseball cap at work, I laugh as hard as anyone else because it is funny. I mean, what are the odds?!

Well, I just got home from work, and it is today for about 10 more minutes, so I had better make this quick.

Let's see. Today was the 14th day of the month of February of 2008. It was a Wednesday. It was my friend Michelle's birthday. It was the day I chose to use my 10% coupon at Target and buy myself some towels for the bathroom I don't actually have yet. Oh yeah, and according to some of my tables, it was also Valentine's Day.

I most definitely am not a fan of this holiday, but neither am I of the party that calls it Single Awareness Day and boycotts all things pink and red. People who know me know that I barely muster up excitement for Christmas or Halloween or even New Year's, so no one can be surprised that I don't attempt awkward cartwheels on this day.

I have never celebrated Valentine's Day--I have never been in love. But I don't think this makes me bitter. I am only 23, and I have no intention of getting married until I am in my 3os at the earliest, so it doesn't bother me that love has never come my way.

Tied in with those facts is that I am pretty simple; I believe in love but I am not all that romantic. And I don't think Valentine's Day is romantic. Shouldn't the unexpectedness and thought of the gesture be what make it romantic? Where is that if once a year (twice if you count anniversaries) you tell your partner to BE ROMANTIC, with an implied or else.

Either someone is already romantic, or they aren't. If they are, then this will just be one more romantic day. If they aren't, then I would think that making them be so for one day would either depress you more for the other 364 days they don't do anything, or it wouldn't mean as much because you know they are only doing it because it is expected on that particular day.

So there's my opinion on this day. Some of it I didn't realize was what I thought until I sat down to write this and it just flowed out. So to everyone out there, Happy February 14th. And to those whom this day means something more to, Happy Valentine's Day.

When I started this blog last month, I did it mostly out of curiosity. As I was setting it up, I really started getting excited about it. All these ideas started flowing through my head about so many future posts and topics I could write about. Unfortunately as with many of my best thoughts, they flew out of my head shortly after never to be thought again.

I was so excited about it, and yet a month and a half later and this here is my third posting. I realized that I suffer from a fear of blogs. Yes, I, Autumn Hill, am intimidated by my own blog.

I get frustrated because either I don't necessarily want this to become my online journal, and because I am afraid that as I write down my thoughts on paper they won't make sense to anyone who happens to read them.

Pinpointing my hesitation hasn't cured it. I am not miraculously going to start posting a thought-provoking piece each night without fail. But this is my vow to myself: I will get over myself and just start writing. Only my friends will ever find this blog on purpose, and if they know me at all they know that I often don't make sense in person anyway. So my blog should bring no surprises.

Already, expressing my nerves has generated one new posting. Who knows what will come next...

I would never presume to call myself an athletic or outdoorsy person. I am not lazy, but I don't actively pursue sports and camping and hiking and the like.

However, I am finding that I might not be one of those people who can work in an office and sit at a desk eight hours a day, five days a week. Something I like to call a butt job. No, this blog is not about plastic surgery. My rear end is my own original, but it is so very sore.

This is forefront in my mind as I re-enter the world of temping. The work is easy, the money isn't bad, and I enjoy having a steady, consistent income after working as a server full time for nearly a year. Yet, that is where the pros end on my list.

I have found a good medium for now. I cut back to serving 3-5 nights a week, and while I have a lot less free time, it creates a good balance in my life. A few days a week I sit at a desk from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., grab a quick dinner, then go to the restaurant and don't sit down again until around 11 p.m.

I worried I would get burned out, but just today I discovered that staying late at work for an hour or two left me feeling more exhausted than I am when I get off work at night after running around catering to diners' whims for several hours.

Something about sitting around leaves me sore and tired, and running my tail off leaves me energized and tired in a good way. I find more satisfaction in what is considered to be the more physically demanding job. But why does it seem like my butt job demands more of me?

All this leads me to wonder where my career path will take me and how I will handle it. I want to work as a copy editor somewhere, somehow, whether it be in journalism or not, but that often requires a desk, which involves a chair and a bottom. I plan on serving as well for many years to come, but I won't always be able to, and I wouldn't want to do that forever anyway.

How do I find a happy medium between doing what I love and saving my body from the demands of sitting all day? Having worked a 9 1/2 hour day at the office today, I am too tired to focus on the answer tonight. I just want to put the question out there to be answered at a later date.

So...I have a blog. I don't know what to do with it yet, but I have it.

Yes, I am one of those people who will fight technology for awhile, but will always give in eventually. First, it was the cell phone. I made it to my sophomore year of college before I finally got one of those, and while I don’t use it much I would feel odd without it. Then it was Facebook. I waited until a year after college to join that, and now I love it. Now it is the blog.

The next step of course is to actually use this blog, which will be quite an achievement for me. I have a lifetime's worth of journals where only the first 10-15 pages of each have writing on them. I think it will be interesting to see how often I actually post here, and the direction my posts will take.

This post is just to get my feet wet. This is me jumping the intimidating hurdle of what to write on the first "page". I am officially welcoming myself to the world of blogging.

*On a side note, I just want to say that I have never had to write the word "succumbed" out before, and I was very proud when I double checked and had spelled it right on my first try!