I really love Rudy. He is totally enamored of me. I mean, I've had other men love me before, but not for six months in a row.*

Just so you know we found two girls to move in, but they won't be able to until August 1st. One of the girls might move in during July, but we'll see. So Anne and I are going to try to wing it for the time being. Winging it is pretty hard when money is involved, it's much easier when you are just winging something on your own merits of character, but throwing in tangible things makes it difficult...you know what else makes it difficult? Land lady's who are sure that their way is the only possible way, even when it is clearly not. But that's a whole other blog entry which I don't have time or energy to write. My sister is getting married today, so I must go finish getting ready for that.

It's official...

Roommates suck. Well, they don't really, I like them, I am in need of two of them. What sucks is not being able to afford the place you live in without them. If it was just a bonus to have roommates and save money on rent then I would be happy as a clam...as is though, I need at least three roommates in my house to afford the rent. Four would be ideal. We started off ideally enough. Emily, Evan, Anne, and I living in a three bedroom house (my room is the den...yes, I pay extra for having a room that is the size of two). Then Evan moved home to save money, she kept paying though since she was in a contract until she found someone to take over her payments. The someone is a whole other story...
Then Emily graduated at the beginning of this month and moved home (across the country) a few weeks ago. So it was just Anne, new chick, and I in the house for the past few weeks. We were trying really hard to get someone new to move in. We had someone who we thought was a sure thing, but due to unexpected medical things she can't move in at this time, then we had two maybes who quickly turned into no-goes. Then Sunday Anne gets a note on her door from New Chick who says that she'll be out by the 1st. And we can't really do anything about it because she wasn't in a contract. Uh...that leaves two to pay the whole rent, thanks hobo. I have a nest egg, so I have the money, but I can't pay that much rent more than once, because we'll have the utilities to split 50/50 too.
So...if you know of anyone in the Richmond area looking for a place to live and they would like to move in as soon as possible...that would be great. Let me know. We have standards though, as desperate as we may be, so keep that in mind too. Not that anyone knows of anyone looking, but it's worth a try. I can't not try right?
Well, that's my week in a nutshell. I leave town tomorrow and don't return until the 3rd, but I may find an opportunity to blog while on vacation. If not, I'll see you guys when I see you.

Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.*

Okay, this is supposed to be all about today because this day is forever long and Kathryn will agree feels like more than one day...feels like several days. But it's about time a day off felt like that rather than one work day feeling like a week. But despite my desire to just write today I forgot to write Thursday...so old business first then new business.
Thursday was Kathryn's birthday, so we went to some restaurant that she likes to frequent. She lured me in with the prospect of chicken fingers so I joined the group from her work and went to lunch. Chicken fingers = chicken nuggets and processed chicken was so 15 years ago for me, so I opt for the burger instead. Now have I mentioned this is a Mexican restaurant. I say this so you'll cut them just a little bit of slack . The burger comes up and I go to check and make sure that it has nothing on it and this is what I see.


I'm a little confused because I thought I ordered a burger...not the reconstituted remains from when they cooked the meat for the tacos. The thing isn't even a patty and it looks like someone picked out a chunk of it. If this weren't enough, Natalie (she works with Kathryn and I think she was meant to be my baby sister, but even though the genetics aren't there we call her our sister anyway) points out the bun.

This is the best I could get with my camera for some reason. Point being - it is probably best for your bun to be a consistent color all the way around. That green/gray haze would be mold. So everyone at the table of course is brought up to speed of my situation (one of those people being my mom) so the waiter comes over to ask how everything is and my mom says, "Good except that moldy bun" and then she makes me show the guy. So he apologized and takes it back to get a new bun. As soon as he is gone my mom says, "If it were mine I wouldn't have said anything." Just so you know, I wasn't going to say anything either because I wasn't going to eat the bun, or the whole burger, but when I got a new bun I felt obligated eat everything.

Thursday...done. This morning I woke up at 7:05 and got ready to go run a 5k. I know, it's no 10k or anything, but it's big for me because I didn't train any (despite plans to do so). Only thing you care about is my time, I understand. 32 minutes. I like to shave off a couple of minutes because the timer for the 5k only shows you the time since the race started, but if you weren't the first person across the time is not your real time. Then I walked for a bit too (I'm not taking time off for that, I'm just admitting that I did have to walk a bit). I'm just excited how close I am to a ten minute mile.

To reward myself we went to breakfast at Boychiks and I got this sausage biscuit. Talk about perfection.

Notice the biscuit to sausage ratio. The coverage is amazing. Sometimes you've got to eat some biscuit to get the the patty, but not with this one. The top has a slight buttery taste as well. Not overpowering, but prevalent enough that it tickles your taste buds with goodness.

Oh and Kathryn and I aren't lemon on the cup of water kind of people. So Mike got the pleasant surprise of having three lemons.

So I came home, cleaned myself up, and then went with Kathryn to see Terminator. LOVED it. Still like Star Trek the best out of the "rehashed" movies (X-men origins, Star Trek, Terminator).

Then I came home and went crazy. Baking, cleaning, reading, eating, sleeping. All in excess. OH and a giant spider tried to kill me when I first got out of the shower. I grabbed my towel, had dried an arm off when the spider jumped out, landing on the ground. He was bigger than normal but not the biggest I've seen. I may or may not have screamed a little, but seriously what kind of comacazy spider hangs out in a bath towel!?

Anyway. I made two cakes today, you can read about one of them on my baking blog which is to the right...yup, I have more blogs, because I go crazy sometimes and blog and blog and blog like I'm going to die tomorrow. Then sometimes I don't blog at all. But anyway. I also washed the cover to Chubbs' bed. He likes it. My favorite is when he does this.


It's like the top of his head itches or something. I just love when he does it and today he kept doing it when I patted his bed so I actually got to take a pic or two. Then he passed out...and it didn't take long for me to follow.


I slept from about 7:30 to a little after 9 which is why I am blogging at 11 o'clock on a Saturday night...with that, I'm going to do something different like read or something. Goodnight and Good Luck*.

I had. A bad. Experience. Dang it. "I'm" deaf.*

It was spring time, the smell of fresh cut grass riding on the breeze. The football field was divided into several sections by small orange cones. Hundreds of middle schoolers ran up and down the fields passing a small, white disc between each other. It was the eighth graders pitted against the seventh graders. A rag tag team of eighth grade girls played against a small group of seventh grade "plastics"*...cheating plastics. I was one of those eighth graders. The details of that day are foggy in my memory, but I do remember this, I remember one of the seventh grade girls cheated (or accused me of cheating which in essence is cheating since cheating in sports is not how I roll) and we had it out on the field.
I had always been one of those quiet students, the kind that surprised teachers if they ever spoke in class and even surprised their friends if they raised their voice. Teachers and friends were both amply surprised that day that i could not only speak but that I could yell.
Fortunately this happened at the end of the class period and my friend quickly dragged me to the dressing room where we change, and then spent the next class period in the guidance counselor's office. I have not really played Ultimate Frisbee since.

Last night however, I made an exception.

At church someone started a Facebook group dedicated to Ultimate Frisbee. It pretty much is just a way to show who might be playing and to establish that it will be on Wednesday nights a Byrd Park. Other than that the group is useless. Amber told me on Sunday that they would be playing this Wednesday and that I should come. I agreed, thinking that I would just show up and support, maybe stand on the field like I usually do, but not really get into it.

I am a girl who enjoys violent sports, no so much that they are in and of themselves violent, but I do enjoy a good story and even better bruises to accompany it (as you may remember from basketball blog entries). It took me a while to get into the game, but my competitive nature finally got the best of me and I found my self playing defensive rather well. However, defensive in frisbee means some damage to my hands. For a while I couldn't feel my fingertips, my middle finger on my left hand is bruised, and while flying through the air one of the other players smacked my arm. Also, this morning I found new bruises on my legs. I'm confused because I never fell, and I don't recall anyone running into me, but they could have. Also, I feel like I may have broken my toe, the big one, and that in turns makes it feel like there's a little more damage to the foot. But overall, I had a really good time! I even caught the frisbee within the goal once (that means I scored), which is pretty exciting for me, since when I first got there I told them not to throw it to me.

Anyway I would go back next week, but at that point I will be in Utah so next week is out. Looks like the 3rd is the next time I am going. I've got basketball tonight so we'll see how I do there and if I can get anymore bruises.

Wayne Chung

Today we celebrated my sister, Kathryn's birthday. Her birthday isn't until the day that Terminator comes out in theaters, but the family can get together more easily on Sundays...and we might go see Terminator since Hollywood gift wrapped it for her, cause seriously what kind of movie opens on a Thursday?

Wow, jumping into digression right away today. My job for lunch today was to provide the birthday cake. Now in my family we don't really like the typical "Happy Birthday" written on the cake. We try to use movie quotes or little sayings that we think are funny. For my dad's birthday we had "Thirty, flirty, and thriving" though he was in his 60's, we've had "Congratulations on the new hip" and "good luck with the hair plugs". Things like that. So a few years ago I actually wrote down what I wanted to write on Kathryn's birthday cake last year, however I forgot and her cake came to her simply saying "Sorry..." the people at the bakery thought I was trying to make amends and then I told them that it was a birthday cake. Then a few months ago I found the post-it note that I had written the birthday message on, "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight". So this year that's what I planned to do.

So yesterday I went to the local grocery store (the store where cake dreams are made of). I waited for the bakery person to come and assist me and when she asked if I wanted something written on it I said, "Yes it's going to be weird." she smiled and I said, "Wang Chung Tonight" Because it was a round pound cake and I realized the whole message wouldn't fit but Kathryn loves the pound cake ones (which are only round). So I spelled "W-A-N-G" for her and then began to spell Chung but she said she would write down the first word first. So when she was reading I said, "C-H-U-N-G". She finished writing rather quickly and I knew she didn't write the "tonight" on the cake. So she prints the sticker and gives it to me and I start to walk away, only glancing quickly at the cake to confirm that "tonight" is not written on the cake.

Then I focused on it a little bit more and this is what I saw...

That says, "Wayne Chung". I immediately started to laugh and I go up to the register knowing full well the cashier is going to read it and have questions because this is what happens every time I get a cake. And you know? A lot of cashiers are trained to look at it, so they can make small talk with their customer. Anyway, so the cashier does read it and asks who Wayne Chung is. I laughed and told him that the woman in the bakery misheard me, but I like the mistake so much I decided to keep it. He laughed and then the customer behind me is looking at the cake and says, "Who is Wayne Chung?" and I told him the same thing and he says, "You don't even know him?" and the lady behind him is asking him what is going on and he's like, "The cake says Wayne Chung" and the lady says, "Who is Wayne Chung?" and the cashier finally says, "She probably wanted Wang Chung, like the song" Yes sir, that is what I wanted. Also made famous in our family in 13 Going On 30.


So that is the story on the cake (the cake that is now my most favorite cake of all time). I just have to figure out who Wayne Chung is.


Anyway, I made this for Kathryn for her birthday, I've been working on it for some time. I made a menu and everything and burned it to a DVD, but I can't put everything up on the blog...just the video part. Hope you enjoy.

And... Here... We... Go.*

First of all...shame shame on any and all friends and family who didn't read the last post simply because it was the longest I've ever written...but in reality it wasn't much writing, more just a lot of pictures. And there were two opportunities for blog bucks! Just look for the '*'.
Anyway, forget that, I already have.

So since that last post what have I been up to? A whole lot of nothing. I am suffering from terminal cabin fever. On Tuesday morning I took Rub back to the airport, on Thursday one roommate left and on Friday morning I took the last conversational roommate to the airport (thus leaving me at home with the roommate who barely comes home and when she does conversation is awkward so we keep that to the bare minimum). Bryan has also gone home. Institute is done with until after I get back from vacation and all of my Netflix are in transit (hopefully arriving tonight, but I won't hold my breath). I have done things, but it doesn't feel like it.
I can always tell when I get to the cabin feverish stage in my life. The first thing to happen is I do something with my hair. I either cut it, or I dye it. This time I cut it.

You can't really tell the difference, but I have cut off quite a bit. I can really tell when I am washing it or trying to do something with it. Not to mention it seems softer to me. Anyway, I suppose if I want people to notice I'll need to cut off more.

Next I would rearrange my room, but in a week I am buying my roommates bed (when she gets ready to move home) so I don't see the point in rearranging until I have that puppy.

Then I begin to go through my stuff and throw things away. I get in the mood of, 'you don't use it so why keep it?'. I have filled up my shredder twice now and have a Goodwill bag almost full.

The last option, the thing I do when I know it gets really bad, is to start writing. Not blogging, that's different folks. We are talking, "Your eyes will never be graced with the sight of these pages because my heart is too much in them" kind of writing. I tried to channel that the other night. I put in "Dark Knight" and sat with my laptop ready to receive inspiration for my story (the one about superheroes (that's a link by the way)). I got nothing more than being swept into the story. Though as an afterthought I might have a little more insight into the bad guys, but we'll see.



Anyway, I think I just wanted to write so that I won't have a big update next time. Oh, this past weekend I held a baby bird! I know I shouldn't have but my cousin had already been holding it and how many times do you get a chance to do that?

Oh and just so you know, I had stuff going on tonight and I've got a full schedule tomorrow which will take me away from the house and interacting with people so I should be just fine. In case you were worried for a bit there.

Hello, Worthless. Miss me?* A.K.A. the MEGApost!

Hello there! It's been a while huh? I've been pretty busy for the past week or so. BFF Rub came to visit on Wednesday, I worked Thursday, we went to VA Beach and Williamsburg on Friday, saw Wolverine on Saturday, slept a little too long on Sunday, went to Monticello on Monday, Jack's Mannequin on Tuesday, drama on Wednesday, Thursday is a blur but I think I cleaned a little of my room. That brings us up to speed. Cool huh? All done. See ya next week.

Oh wait...there is that part where I took a million and one pictures. Just a warning: this is going to be an loaded blog...like that ice cream. Mostly pictures though, so I'll try not to give too much commentary and then this blog won't hurt so much. (Again...like the ice cream - all the extra chunks of goodness (like cookie dough chunks) with just a drizzling of the original good stuff (i.e. the ice cream itself). Granted I've actually never had any Loaded Ice Cream before so I don't know what the heck I'm talking about.

Virginia Beach

We decided to go to VA Beach first, then head back towards Williamsburg, and then on to home. Turned out to be a good idea. One thing I did not get a picture of those was Mount Trashmore. One day...

So Rub had never been to the beach, and she remembered seeing something on the travel channel about it but even when she lived here she never made it out. So we went. Friday mornings before school is out for the summer turns out to be a good time to go.

I love Rub in the background.

Before we had even gone to the beach we hit up some stores looking for shot glasses (because I belong to the coolest HR department ever) and Emily "Mega Brain" found these. I can't help but think of MC Hammer for some reason.

Williamsburg

First stop, visitor's center. Believe it or not we are doing this pose on purpose.

The colonial woman let us play with this game. I think she may have been sipping on some fermented cider, she did say something about liking that stuff. But she was nice though eccentric.

We got into a little bit of trouble with the law.

After hitting up some of the shops and getting rock candy (Yum-O*) we headed over for our ghost tour. Because you can't go to Colonial Williamsburg and not go on a ghost tour! This is the Randolph house (I think) and it is purportedly the most haunted house in Williamsburg.

Then it was off for pulled pork sandwiches and Williamsburg ice cream! Emily couldn't stop herself from eating the peanuts and these are the shells. We added our tour group stickers on there for...well, I don't really know why we did. I did not use the bathroom while there because Emily had been haunted in their restroom facilities before. No thank you!

Saturday - Wolverine and Lunch

Just lunch photos here, I mean seriously who takes pictures during a movie. Fantastic by the way, as long as you don't think about how well it works in with the story and as long as you are okay with Ryan Reynolds not being on the screen enough (which was almost a breaking point I'm not going to lie)

C$ and Rub

My glasses that I got for free from Emily's estate sale. How sad. It's okay, they looked better as lens-less glasses, and yes, I popped out the other lens and then wore them when I went to the bathroom. The host totally checked me out...he liked them. Or thought I was a nerd...either way.

Fill 'em up, I never want to see the bottom of this glass! Rub is totally happy with all of her water.

Wild Wild West

On Monday Rub and I headed out to Monticello. We got slightly confused on the way but we did make it finally. One of our detours was the fascinating city of Charlottesville. Just to prove how awesome they are (or maybe to give an outlet for teenage angst) they have a graffiti wall. Even though it's legal it still felt like living on the edge...and the best part is that there were three cops just a few feet away from us.

I have acute Yomamaitis. It's a knee jerk reaction not only in verbal communication but also in written. I need to find another way to insult people.

I don't think Rub enjoys the pictures I took of her writing her portion on the wall, so I won't post them.

Finally we made it to Monticello. I kept expecting stories of hauntings and mayhem but seems like the Jefferson's had a quiet kind of life. No scandals here. Or so they say. Maybe if we pay extra they'd let us know.

Jack's Mannequin concert. Yea!

Despite the fact that whenever Money or I told someone we were going to see Jack's Mannequin and they said, "Uh, who?" The National was pretty packed. There are people in Richmond who know. Also, in case you don't know, this guy used to be with Something Corporate...does that ring a bell? I know it will for Tami, she got me into Something Corporate.

It was a dark and blustery day. The rain fell from the sky in pellets, the summer heat had been chased away by a wintry, wet chill. I didn't have an umbrella. The line existed where it had never existed before and all we had for protection was Claire's sweater which she was nice enough to share. Didn't do much for her hair though.

It was only Claire and me on the outside, Bryan went straight in. Which is why I am making my face in the next picture.

That face shall haunt his dreams for an eternity.

The opening guy, Matt Nathanson, was pretty good, good stage presence, but a potty mouth. I wanted to get him some Orbitz gum or something. Dude, it made me smirk a little the first time because for some reason cuss words used by "the person in charge" always do. But it wore out fast (we're talking second time) and then he kept going and I was thinking, "Dude, I know you have a more extensive vocabulary then this." Songs were amazing though. I knew I knew his music, I have some of his stuff on my iPod, but I hadn't realized that he was pretty darn popular too. Scratch that, I hadn't realized that he was pretty popular (no "too", cause no one seems to know who Jack's Mannequin is...not that I am disappointed in my friends...more that I am ashamed that I haven't helped them to know who he is).

I have officially decided that I am in love with him. Not only that but near the end of the concert he was telling the crowd that they could probably get the new album for free on a variety of websites, and he understood times are hard, get the music any way you can, just get it, listen to it and come to the concerts. granted they make most of their money off concerts over records sales, but still, it was refreshing to have him tell me it's okay that I'm getting his music for free. Another reason I love him, that and he plays the piano, kind of looks like a nerd who quickly turns a rather attractive individual because of his stage presence, and I love every single song he sings. I was also oddly attracted to the electric guitarist, Bobby...don't know what brought that on, but I was.

Hottness.

Matt Nathanson ran back out on stage to join in on the last song.

And to jump on the piano with Andrew (Jack)

Last jump from the piano.

Take home message of this entry - best concert I've been to in my entire life (what a short concert going life it has been when you look at it). It rains at everyone concert I've gone to. BFF's are the best. The beach is cool, but don't go swimming. And everyday is better if you have a Slurpee thrown into the mix.

Oh, and four day weekends rock.