Galactic Greetings!

That was the title of the email I got with my sweet action Buzz Lightyear picture in it. I will post that here. Anyway, a whirlwind of activity the past few weeks. The highlights:

-Anne, Kyla, LeeAnne, Ashlee, and I all hopped in Sizzle's car and drove a squillion hours down to Anaheim to the Comfort Inn, which Anne came to refer to as, "The Shadiest Place on Earth." Because, although it has a close proximity to "The Happiest Place on Earth," we still learned about call girls, sketchy people, and police reinforcement from another boarder. Sweet.
-We met up with Jackie, John, and Syd and headed (sans John) to Disneyland and California Adventure for three days. It was a total blast minus a few minor events, one which will be mentioned next. I really liked it, but I kind of felt that my eyeballs were injected with a nervous, colorful electricity and wondered what the difference between Disneyland Day 3 and LSD is.
-The person currently masquerading as Snow White (and also the little-known fairy character--Fawn) is not a nice person. As Snow White, she shut Anne down when Anne requested that she act scared as we held up our apple slices. After acting like a 3-brain-celled ditz for a while, she told Anne, "Why don't YOU do that, while the rest of us pose like pretty princesses?" Vomit.
-Adrienne rescued me and it was good to see her.
-Then we drove up to Syd's shack in Modesto and spent a ridiculous day by the pool. Spoiled? Yes I was.
-Then we drove home.
-I'm pretty sure I got a job at a boys ranch. I had an interview Friday and they left a voicemail asking if I could start on Monday, but didn't tell me what time. Thus far, my efforts to track them down have been fruitless. I'm probably just calling the wrong number. Anyway, it involves working outside, with kids, dogs, horses, etc. And I get to wear jeans and t-shirts and tennis shoes. Bwhahaahahha. I'm pumped.

you betcha

As many of you are aware, I have been working for my dad at his automotive shop. I am the front desk receptionist. My main duties include: invoices, quickbooks, smiling big and directing customers to someone else. Also staring out the window when there's not a whole lot going on. Now, you must understand that my dad comes from a line of "good ol' boys" and talks the talk well. When he and ky and syd's dad get together, it's like visiting a convention in another language. I'm trying to think of how to describe that language. It's got a twang, a bit of southern, a bit of hick. And there are several phrases unique to this language. I recently discovered that not only do I generally understand goodolboy, but I unintentionally speak it. Here are some phrases that recently came flying out of my mouth. (I will include pronunciation)

"Bin doin' a lotta fishin' lately?"
"Yep, yep, jus git 'er dun."
"Thank yew." (You know how people with accents say it.)

It's been a kind of horrifying process, but I don't mind it too badly. Just be forewarned.

Upcoming news - I will be bebopping down to California with some of the coolest people on earth to see some more of the coolest people on earth. I will also probably throw up at Disneyland, but I'm pretty excited to scream my lungs out. This basically happens on all the rides. There's this sweet picture somewhere of me and Kyla on a rollercoaster. She is smiling relaxedly. I, on the other hand, look like I am giving birth to a demon-possessed rhinocerous (large and terrifying). I don't expect that anything will have changed between now and then.

When I come back, remind me to blog about hearing loss and why I could get a hearing aid.

New Kid in Town

Now, I don't usually give shout-outs to websites, but I recently stumbled on this one and it might have changed my life a little bit. Seriously go check it out:

www.dontjudgemyhair.com

Great news recently, all three co-presidents have located rollerblades via craigslist and will be picking them up tonight. A fourth pair has been located for another co-president who does not actually know how to rollerblade but will soon learn, I'm sure. Tonight, weather permitting, the first meeting of the co-presidents of the rollerblading club will convene, with honorary dog-walker, Anne. We should get some good pictures out of this.

Slideshow

Ashlee's b-day (you'll notice the hidden recorder. Did I play it at On the Border? Yes I did. Was I off key? Yes I was? Was the tune kind of unrecognizable? Yes it was? Did it rule all school? Yes it did.)


The drive-in.

Well, in my grandmother's words, "Spicy!" Yep, life has been a little spicy as of late. Little events here and there. For example, I recently purchased a pair of rollerblades from craigslist for one dollar. That's right, go back and read it again because I definitely meant to type "one dollar." I bought them on Saturday and have had a tragically long wait. On Saturday night we went to the drive-in to see The Proposal and Transformers 2. I liked The Proposal, but 2.5 hours of big pieces of metal blowing up other big pieces of metal wasn't really my thing. Then on Sunday I hung out with a friend who was in town for only a bit and we saw Away We Go at the Flicks. I recommend it. :D Funny movie. And I had my first scone experience at Merritt's. Quality times, all of it.

Thus, today, was supposed to be the virgin voyage of my rollerblades. And then this

happened. I call it "Tropical, Yet Landlocked Tsunami of Dirt". Unfortunately my skills as a rollerblader are pretty slim. There I was, moving down the sidewalk at about 65 miles an hour by no effort of my own (the wind was really just that strong) and thinking to myself about how I never DID master the whole stopping thing, even at my middle school Rollerdrome I-read-all-those-damn-AR-books-so-get-me-out-of-this-school skating parties. I was not surprised when the gulf winds then launched me onto the grass. You may ask why I had been heading this direction in the first place. A novice rollerblader, no matter how stylish he or she may look with the wristguards he or she purchased for 75 cents at a large yardsale, should be aware of earth conditions such as Tropical, Yet Landlocked Tsunami Gale Forces. Well, the answer is simple. I was following a pink kite. It went zooming past, and, not being one to pass up a good deal, I followed it, hoping to add a pink kite to my list of recent bargain steals. After being launched onto the grass, I looked up and studied the kite, which was across several sidewalks of varying height levels with no parking signs (aka, brake stops) in sight. I then noticed that the kite was actually a severely dismembered umbrella and not likely to do me any good. So, I attempted to head back to my vehicle, despite monstrous winds blowing in my face.

But the drama continues. A white station wagon pulled into the deserted parking lot. I decided since I had 18 kilograms of sand in my eyes anyway, I should probably leave, especially since the station wagon was coming directly towards me. They pulled up beside me and asked if I had seen....a pink TENT. YES! The kite was not actually a dismembered umbrella at all, but rather a child's tent, probably featuring a barbie or princess. This explained any previous doubts I had held about the proper shape of an umbrella.

In final news, Kelsi and I and possibly Kyla have started a rollerblading club. If you would like to join, we are offering co-presidency to any new members who join before February 13th.

Hogmail

For some reason, when I use this keyboard, I type "hogmail" more often than I type "hotmail." Which brings up the question, Is there a hogmail.com? No. But the domain is up for sale if you want it.

In recent news, I bebopped on up to Portland/Salem for a few days with the madre and the sis for my cousin's wedding reception and family reunion. Good times. Amanda was gorgeous and the hubby seems like a winner. I was reminded of my painful lack of small talk skills, but still managed to enjoy myself. Since our last reunion was in the 90's, there was some catching up to do. Like when my cousin, Chris, was chatting with my sister, who actually looks like my dad's side of the family (I don't), and he said, "So? How's your sister?" And Anne said, "Well, I don't know, but you could ask her" and turned to me. And my grandma has really taken to the word, "Spicy!" and uttered it in response to any questions about her food or drink, but especially in connection with alcoholic beverages.

We also played a wild game of tag which involved removing parts of my leg on a tree and some wild jungle-style yelling.

This could be my last blog, however, on account of, well, I might not survive this weekend. I'm going on my first backpacking trip and it sounds a little wild. Words like "all uphill" and "10 miles" and such were getting thrown around. So we'll see what happens. I'm excited nonetheless.

*Theme music plays*

I'm back in the States! It was a bit of a wild ride home, but I'm finally here. We landed in NY on the 7th after a 4 hour delay involving a lot of circling and sitting in some place called Bradley, CT. But this was really a great opportunity for me to develop my Tetris skills with the in-flight video games option. They a couple days in New Haven, CT to visit a friend and learn about the fast-paced, action-packed dice game called Farkle. We then headed back to NY only to realize we had stored our luggage at JFK but were flying out of LaGuardia. Maybe I said a lot of bad words. I can't remember.

Thus, we missed our flight, actually, we missed gate closing by about 15 minutes and had to stay in NY another night. But we luuuuuuucked out the next day when we flew standby all the way home the next day. Plus, I got to meet this sweet kid who was very interested in comparing the extendable handle of my carry-on with his mother's. I think he found hers more impressive because it had 8 sections whereas mine only had 4. Or 4 and 2, depending on if he was counting with two hands or one. Either way, he conducted several studies.

So, I've just been back in the valley, relaxing and washing clothes, etc. I cancelled my trip to Portland because I'm quite out of money. Partially due to the fact that Verizon took it all in order to set me up as a "new user". At any rate, it should arrive by mail Tuesday-ish and I'll let you know when I have a new phone number. Woot!