Tired, happy, still very pretty

Today I’m tired.  It’s been building.  This morning I woke up and I looked at my clock and I could not, for the life of me, make my eyes work.  I blinked and blinked.  Granted, I wasn’t wearing glasses so that may have been part of the problem right there.  I could see numbers, but couldn’t tell what they were.  I said, “It’s six-something, six-something” over and over to myself.  When it was seven-something, I got up.

I’m fine and mid-to-high functioning right now.  Coherent sentences, joshing mechanism intact.  But it was touch and go for awhile there.

I have an iced VIA, that helps.  I have my a.w.e.s.o.m.e VIA mug.  For those of you in the area, you can’t stumble into a local Starbucks without seeing a large display of the mug I am talking about, the VIA mug.  For those of you that live elsewhere, let me describe it’s awesomeness.  I suppose you’ve seen Back to the Future.  Remember when Doc has the containers of plutonium (huh.  I don’t know how to spell that) and they come in like vacuum-sealed vials and go “swoosh” when he opens them and takes out a vial?  The VIA mug sort of hearkens to that.  It’s a normal travel mug, red and stainless steel, but built in all around it are slots for packets of VIA, accessable from the bottom.  There is no “swoosh” noise when you remove a VIA packet, which is a bummer, but even Starbucks mugs aren’t perfect.  It’s still good for making iced coffee, I’ve found.  Because it has a fill-line to the right amount of water, and I just stick one ice cube in, cream, and go.

I don’t drink a lot of iced coffee, just to clarify, but so far this summer it is much better for walking to the train than my usual hot coffee.  For obvious reasons (heat).

So all this is to say that I am coming down from my spectacular Fourth of July extravaganza, which included but was not limited to:  balsamic glazed salmon, hot air balloons, a new flowery shirt from Old Navy, coffee, vanilla mint sparkle lipgloss, flying kites, a superball that can bounce 75 feet in the air (no joke)(seriously, no joke), various smoking things to light on fire, sparklers, many kinds of weather, four delicious breakfasts over the course of three mornings (really), multiple wardrobe changes, a series of spectacular discounts at Starbucks, cheese dip, fireworks, a probably-haunted walk through the forest, two days of barbecue, scary hornets, unfortunate allergies, lots of good-looking friends and family, ears of corn, peanut butter cookies, two trips to Target, and last and greatest of all Mom’s Extremely Delicious One-Of-A-Kind Italian Ice.  You heard me.  Mom made Italian Ice.

So I am hoping to convey that I am not totally unjustified in having a building sort of tiredness.  The leftovers are helping with that, as is the aforementioned iced coffee.

Guys my vanilla mint sparkle lip gloss (actually it is called Golden Mint, but it tastes and looks like vanilla mint) is so good.  Ingredients, as listed:  Healthy Lip Complex, Peppermint Oil.  Healthy Lip Complex!  My favorite!  Although I guess that’s not the ingredients, that’s just what it says on the front.  The actual ingredients I’m not going to attempt given that a) I can’t even spell plutonium and b) I have already made one too-long list in this entry.  Just know there’s a lot of plutonium in it.

My friend Amber (of High School fame) is coming to visit me this weekend!  I am so excited.  What I’m saying is if you thought I was going to take it easy and catch up on sleep someday soon, you have another think coming.  Although Amber and I probably won’t do anything but make cheese dip and sit around quoting Gilmore Girls, our two favorite activities.  She is coming in for a Librarian Conference of Sorts Located in Chicago, which lends more credibility to the trip besides just coming to my house to eat cheese dip.

Although that would also be totally valid.  I think I’m going to take a brain nap.  That’s when I go ahead and read fashion blogs for awhile.  It’s the best.

To those of you who saw me yesterday and felt bad for me because of my terrible terrible allergies

You will be pleased to know that I have strengthened my defenses against pollen, ragweed, and all that stuff.  Spores!  Whatever it is that makes my nose crazy in the summer/fall.  My mom gave me some Zyrtec, which I think I’m going to start using instead of Claritin (my usual), because I think it might help just to change it.  Then today I bought some allergy drops for my eyes, and a tube of that crazy allergen-blocking stuff.  Yes.  I bought it.  I have absolutely no idea yet if it is going to work, but it’s not going to hurt and since it’s not a drug I can use it alongside the medicine if I want.  I also found a few nasal sprays I can keep in mind if I need something else, and I studied up online about what things I can take together and how often. 

I’m not holding back this year.  Bring it on, August.  Let’s just see what you’ve got.

Also, I’ll update more soon, I promise.

I can not. wait. for summer.

Today is Friday of a four-day week, and payday.  And I have a cute braid in my hair.  And my iPod is charged.  And it’s pretty nice outside.  You know me when it gets nice out.  It’s like catnip.  I start talking in song lyrics, I joke around with strangers. 

So here’s what’s new with me:  Wayne’s purchase of a Lil Smokey Grill has proven itself to be the Awesomest Decision of the Summer So Far.  He’s a grilling maniac.  Even his clothes are starting to smell delicious.  He sits down next to me and I’m like, “Is that… hickory?  And Sweet Baby Rays?”  He might be putting charcoal in his shampoo.  I don’t know.  I’m just happy because he made the best corn evahhh on Memorial Day.  And grilled pineapple.  Yum!

Another new thing is that the back porch is all cleaned out and official-looking.  Like how back porches are.  We (ML and I) have this latticed-in area out back that now houses a table, four chairs, a few outdoor end-tables, a gnome, and a two strings of patio lights.  The gnome is yet unnamed, but we named the chairs after characters from Happy Days.  (Sit on it?  Eh?) (I’m sorry) (See, this is how I get when it gets just a little warm out).

And I know you’ll be relieved when you hear this:  I’ve picked out my summer hairstyle.  I decided to follow the crowd.  I’m going with milkmaid braids.  I watched a really helpful instructional video about it so I’m pretty much all set.  There are basically two ways to wear them, with hair down, and with all your hair up in braids.  I can do both!  I plan on rocking this style until it gets old for me.  I predict mid-July.

I just got a loser email.  Really.  There was a drawing at work to win a free burrito from Chipotle and I did not win.  How I’m going to deal with this setback, I have no idea. 

Lastly, I bought a bike helmet!  And Wayne put air in my tires!  And I got this cute reflective thingy to tie back my pants so I don’t rip them!  My bike helmet is for children, because I have a really small head, and it is kind of rip-off Guitar Hero themed.  I mean, it has electric guitars and neon orange streaks on it.  Needless to say, it makes me look awesome.  As if my hot pink bike didn’t already.  I think eventually I am going to have to get a basket so I can keep fresh flowers and a baguette in it.  Obviously a necessity.

Don’t read on unless you’re extremely interested in the Woman’s Retreat. It’s really long.

Ok.  I will tell you a. lot. more about the Woman’s Retreat.  If you’re not interested, no big, but some people were asking about it.  People who love me, so:

Friday night:  Jill and I arrive early to set up and check out the space.  We have just enough time to get the gift bags, oranges, flowers, and bible verses in everyone’s rooms so they looked pretty and nice, and then I set up the conference room with everyone’s folders, highlighters, and mix CDs.  Jill was my artistic director, of course, she makes everything look beautiful.

Friday night was chill, mostly we just checked in, got keys, got settled, nosed around the hotel a bit to see what we had, and did two bible studies.  I lead the first one, which was more of a Bible Study/Introduction.  I walked everyone through their folders, talked about times and schedules, showed everyone the terrible map I copied for them. 

Then I did an introduction to the series, which was about resting in Christ.  Basically, I took four sermons my uncle gave years ago and turned them into a page and a half of info.  I am a ruthless splicer.   My uncle blogs here:  www.maxgrace.wordpress.com .  We studied the Names, Attributes, Promises, and Works of God in turn, but the focus was on God being more powerful than us and our problems.  In other words, reason after reason after reason we can trust him.

Then Sandy lead Names of God.  She did a fantastic job, everyone enjoyed it, and it totally set the tone for the weekend…  Conversational, respectful, and deep.  She had everyone contributing.  And she never led a bible study before!  It was a fantastic start.

Saturday:  Woke up, breakfast, and another bible study.  This one was lead by Julie, Promises of God.  Julie had everyone singing “Standing on the Promises” by the end, which was super-cute.  More conversation, more verses, more highlighting our favorites.  Then Rebekah did a greek lesson for us.  It’s terrible that I’ve forgotten the words already, but she did an exegesis of Hebrews 4:9, and showed us the difference between two different greek words for Rest.  It was quick, relevant, and extremely interesting.

Then we decorated totes with puffy paint!

Everyone went to Panera after that, it was good to get out of the hotel.  We went to a free craft fair, which was really fun.  Then everyone did their own thing for awhile.  For my money, I hit the whirlpool with Sandy and Rebekah.  Livin the life.  Then everyone rejoined in the meeting room and we ordered pizza.

Gillian lead a fantastic thing on journal-writing.  Gillian blogs here:  www.lintofpocket.wordpress.com .  Basically, she writes these amazing pieces about her life experiences… and she has had a very interesting life.  She’s a great writer.  She read some pieces from her journal at 16 (when she first became a Christian) and from right after her delivery of Polly.  Then she had us do some journaling, with prompts she provided.  Afterwards, we split up into pairs and shared prayer requests and prayed.

The third bible study was done by Peggy, Attributes of God.  By this time, everyone was really in the swing of the theme I think, plus the material for attributes was very powerful.  Possibly this bible study only stood out for me, I don’t know.  But it was another really good one, lots of people contributing, prayer at the end.

Saturday evening was Spa Night.  Jill and I brought a bunch of goodies from Ulta… face masks, nail stuff, foot scrubbies.  Stuff for our hair.  Our conference room had a full bathroom with a tub, and a sitting area (I told you it was sweet) so we just sort of lounged, listened to music, ate snacks, and beautified.  Good times!

Sunday:  Breakfast.  I tried to make the schedule so no one had to get up early, that was mostly a gift from Amy to Amy, haha, although I think a couple other people liked that too.  First thing we did after waffles and coffee was an origami lesson by Jill.  Which was so fun!  We made two kinds of paper cranes, and then Peggy took the book and figured out how to make an owl.  I have no idea how she even did it, her and Jill did some complicated-sounding origami shop talk.  It was fun.

Our last bible study was by Rebekah, an hour before clean-up and check-out.  She did works of God, and we went through story after story in the bible about God creating people, providing for people, and rescuing people.  It was a fantastic conclusion, and the popcorn style of the stories really worked well to paint an over-arching picture.

For me, I walked away from the Woman’s Retreat feeling totally bonded to the women who went.  We had a pretty large age-range even though we only had 10 women, and 10 totally different walks of life were represented!  But the cool thing was that everyone had such a great attitute towards each other that it didn’t matter at all.  I just have a great community of women at my church!  I’m so grateful for the way it all came together.

Free Things

Last night I got a free Kerastase Treatment!!!!  I know.  I KNOW!  Wait, maybe you don’t know.  I will tell you.

Kerastase is another expensive hair product line, another Bumble & Bumble or Aveda if you will, basically for movie stars and extremely devoted fashionistas (sorry, I read a lot of beauty blogs these days so the word “fashionista” is now in my vocab, what up).  Let me give you an idea.  Shampoo, $40.  Conditioner?  $55.  And the treatment I got last night?  Probably in the neighborhood of $80-$100.  Plus I got a free blow dry, which is a lot more than someone turning my head upside-down for five minutes and then saying “good enough”– aka, what I usually do.  It took an hour.

Plus!  Daniel taught me a lot of interesting things about my own hair.  For one thing, he said that I should never part it before I blow dry it because it will lack volume.  (Me: It does!  It does!)  Second, he taught me how to use mousse properly.  (Me:  Oooooh.  Ok, got it.)  Third, he taught me that I have great hair.  I mean, maybe they have to compliment customers a lot or something, but he could not get over the color of my hair.  Like:  “This is natural?  It’s so rare to see such a beautiful natural color like this… ” Another stylist walked past and said, “Love your bangs!”  Which I cut myself, btw.  He also described my hair as “thick and healthy” which makes my old description of “ugly and stupid” kinda obsolete.

So anyway, he used like six products on my hair (including a Bumble & Bumble styling lotion!) and at every one I was like, oooooooh, I’ve read about that.  Oooooh, what’s that one?  Is it good?  Would you recommend it?  I mean if I decided to sell my car so I could afford these two hair products, are they definately the two I should get?

Luckily I think he thought I was charming and not annoying.  Well.  I guess he’s paid to act like he thinks that, but I think he understood that I don’t have any money so he gave me an extra nice-blow dry and absolutely no hard sell on the products.  In fact, after he got the hint about my brokeness, he recommended something from Sally Beauty Supply for like “five bucks”… which is pretty nice of him if you ask me. 

As for today, Day 2 Free Things Edition, I’m going to the Art Institute after work to check out the new wing.  It’s free today, and every Thursday for the summer I think.  I haven’t been there in so long… I’m really excited!

I’m wearing a skirt, so.

Today is a good day.  I’m wearing a skirt, so.  You know what that means.  A good day.

I did kind of drop off the blogging planet.  There are two reasons for this.  One, because my computer at work can’t always keep up with the changing layout of wordpress.  Which admittedly only changed once, but whatev.  Two, because I have a well-documented aversion to change, even minor changes.  I am no longer talking about wordpress.  I spent a lot of time working on the woman’s retreat.  When it was over I was like, well, now what?  I really can’t explain it any better than that.

Let me tell you about the woman’s retreat a little.  The hotel was under construction.  (Thank you for telling me that on the phone when I called 6 times over 2 months to confirm, by the way.)  But the meeting room I reserved for us was wonderful, it was cozy and not conference-y at all.  We had a dry erase board!  And a coffee bar, and a bathroom, and a sitting area.  Which was perfect.  Jill made all these amazing flower arrangements, too, so it was extra beautiful.  Oh, and I brought oranges and you know how I feel about those.  It was lovely.

The women at my church were very kind to me.  I am still blown away by it.  I don’t say that because I think I did a bad job or anything, just that I could tell that their attitude from start to finish was to be supportive of me, to play along, and to get the most they could out of the weekend.  And meanwhile I, you know me, barely competent at doing my own laundry, I managed to be totally organized the entire time.  I mean it.  I didn’t lose anything, I didn’t forget anything, I had enough copies, and there were no major screw-ups to report.  Talk about works of God!

And I scored a brand new Ah-mazing journal at the craft fair.  It’s made out of an old book, and they left some of the illustrations in, and in the front a library-thing… what’s it called?  Where you write in the name of the borrower?  Doesn’t matter.  I love it!

So beyond all that, I also decided to take a short break from Second City classes.  A couple reasons.  For one, it’s early summer!  aka, the most wonderful time of year.  I’d like to spend evey minute I can not stressing out about the difference between satire and parody thankyouverymuch.  For another reason, I had some car repairs and woman’s retreat stuff dwindle away my bank account.  I know I don’t really have to, but I prefer to put things back in order before another big expense like class.  I know.  I’m a money fuddy-duddy.  By next session, all will be rightened (is that a word?  I hope so, I like it), and I’ll be back to asking, “Is this funny?  How about this, is this funny?  Oh yeah, this is totally funny,” over and over to myself.

I bought the best red-orange nailpolish yesterday.  I have been so into red-orange lately.  It’s the perfect summer color.  It makes me think of sitting on a patio.  Speaking of which, I should really make an effort to sit on a patio later tonight.  I hope I remember!

Work.

Today they hung a piece of interior-design-style art at the far end of the hall.  You know.  Past the elevators, but still in my main reception area.  Which means today is now New Art Themed, as in:  “Would you look at that, they hung something up,” “What’s that,” “Oh I don’t like it,” “Nobody told me they were hanging that today,” “Who did this,” “Finally!  They put something up!”  Approximately 50 employees pass by my desk at least 4 times a day.  (In, out, lunch, lunch… sometimes court, sometimes bathroom), so you do the math for how many comments I’m going to field.  Well.  Probably just 50, maybe 75 if half of everybody mentions it twice.

I love it.  First of all, I generally like having something to talk about.  Weather, news, sports, who cares.  Just keep me interested for the day.  Second, my stance is that I like the art thing.  And I hold a lot of subconcious sway.  At least I’d like to think so.  Everyone walks in, considers the new artwork, and who do they talk to about it?  Me.  I can single-handedly influence everyone in the whole firm I think, if you consider the fact that most people do not form an opinion until they see whether someone else that they like or do not like likes or does not like what they’re looking at.

A complicated sentence, yes, but so true.

Anyway, my theory is most people like me enough, most people are talking to me about the sign first, before they talk to anyone else.  So they say, “Huh, what’s this?” and I respond, “Isn’t it awesome?  They just hung it today.  I love it.  It adds color.”  They still look confused, but now they’re in a positive conversation, so the only natural response is, “Oh yeah, it looks good.”  My main goal in this is to convince everyone in the office to get more color in here in general, since our theme so far I think is “brown spectrum.” 

It’s made of magazine clippings.  I’m so serious.  I do really like it.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter.  I kind of wish I worked in a forest actually, or a jungle.  I’m picturing a Rainforest Cafe… an indoor setting with plants and animals popping out at you.  Now that would be a nice professional setting.  My desk would be in a tent, and people would have to ask to come in.  And I would type even faster because it would be nice and warm there and I’d have my own coffee maker at my desk that was shaped like a monkey. 

Somehow I don’t think the subconscious influency thing is going to get me that, though.  I’ll settle for slightly more colorful artwork.

Rex? Sniffle, sniffle.

My car, an adorable green 96 Saturn, is named Rex because I think it looks like a dinosaur.  And sometimes I call it Sexy Rexy as though I named it after Empire Records, but truthfully, I just thought that the car looked kind of like a dinosaur face.  Anyway Rex is not doing so well.  Pretty bad, in fact.  It’s the alternator.

Here’s how we found out:  Wayne, my loving boyfriend, offered to pick me up from my Second City class Monday night, even though he was opening the next morning.  (Opening, read: waking up at 4:30 a.m.)  But the car died, and Wayne didn’t have his cell phone because he lost his charger somewhere during Roadtripapolooza 2009.  He called me from a pay phone, called Mary Lee to pick us up, etc.  I called my parents, we all went back to the car, waited for a tow truck.

Tow Truck Adventure All Stars!!!!!!:

1.  Mary Lee – not only picked me up from class, but waited for well over an hour with us, keeping me company especially and telling encouraging stories about how cars she’s had that have lasted long even after a scare like this.   Also loaned us her car and offered to continue to do so as long as mine is caput.  That’s pretty much how I have any groceries right now, ML’s car Tuesday.

2.  Guy who helped Wayne push the car into a parking lot – W claims he came out of nowhere and then when they got the car a-goin, just walked away.

3.  Roadside Assistance people – Very effective system, actually.  By effective I mean inexpensive.

4.  Tow Truck Driver – held it together with a screwdriver and talked with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.  Literally the happiest, nicest guy ever.  Made me feel better instantly.

5.  Wayne – Stayed up for all this and got approximately 2 hours of sleep that night.

6.  Parents – Insisted I get Roadside Assistance in the first place.  Figured out the address of a Pep Boys where I could tow it.  Told me how to use my Roadside Assistance.  Gave me a couple options of places to take it.  Listened to the noise it was making.  Actually, that was kind of funny:

Dad:  Can you try starting it so I can hear it?

Me:  Ok.  (I turn the key)

Rex:  Er-er-er– KER CHUNK, KER CHUNK, KER CHUNK.

Me:  Did you hear that?

Dad:  Yep.  That sounds– pretty bad.

The noise made us laugh a lot at the time.  Laughing with my dad, now that helped. 

Anyway, you can file this next paragraph after “Parents” if you want, or you can consider it a conclusion of sorts.  Because the next day Pep Boys told me I needed a new alternator but wanted to charge me a ton and wanted to do a bunch of other stuff to my car too.  But my dad told me he could fix the alternator for less.  We just had to get the car to a place where he could work on it.  Oh wait, did that sound like a problem?  Because it wasn’t.  My dad solved that too by obtaining a tow truck attachment and then borrowing a truck that he could put it on.  He and my mom towed it themselves Tuesday night.

My mom’s words about towing my car to the suburbs:  “We’re fine.  But we’ll never be the same again.”

The luckiest thing is that it happened the day after Roadtripapolooza.  What is Roadtripapolooza?  Read on.  I wrote an extremely long and detailed post about it.

Don’t tell them we went down to Ybor City again

(thats a line from a Hold Steady song.  They love Ybor City)

So Wayne and I totally pulled off Roadtripapolooza 2009!  A trip planned specifically because a) we love The Hold Steady and b) we couldn’t get tickets last time they were in town.  Well.  Technically I could from a sketchy man named Biff who said he’d give them to me for 80 dollars but Wayne convinced me that was a bad idea.  And I don’t think Biff was actually his name.

Anyway, here’s what we did instead, three months later:  Drove to see them at Calvin College for the Faith and Music Festival in Michigan, and then turned around and drove to Champange Urbana to see them again the next night.  And that, folks, is Roadtripapolooza 2009!!!!!!!!!

Thursday:  I took off a half day at work so I could get home by 2:00.  Went to Trader Joe’s for snacks.  What?  Trader Joes?  For… snacks?  Seriously.  We bought what we thought was a bag of dried strawberries, realized we couldn’t buy pringles or anything like pringles, and headed to Jewel.   Where the real snacks are.  Namely, cheese sauce and cheezy pretzles.  So we’re off.  BUT THEN.  About 1 hour into the trip I realized I left my camera memory card in my laptop at home.  Nooooooo!  I had to sit in angry-at-self silence for a few minutes, it’s true.  Then I got over it.

We made it to Calvin College literally 15 minutes before the show.  No small feat considering that the Grand Rapids streets seem to be based on concentric circles and all the stoplights blink for no reason an Illinois-dweller can fathom.  Anyway.  We got there on time!  The show was awesome!  We were standing on the cover for the orchestra pit so the floor was literally swaying back and forth under us.  They played great songs and sounded amazing.  Craig Finn didn’t talk at all, or hardly at all.  Wayne bought me a yellow t-shirt and a tour poster so I can circle the two shows we went to on it.

Friday:  Lots of driving.  We stopped at Meijer the night before to get me a camera card, so now I have plenty of pictures of us stopping for things.  You know.  Coffee.  Candy.   More coffee.  Bathroom, obvi, but no pictures of that.  DISCOVERY:  The dried strawberries we bought from TJ’s was actually dried Rambatan.  Rambatan, a fruit that looks like a red spikey thistle from Thailand with a flavor we don’t even have a word for in the Western Hemisphere.  I’m serious.   We just fed the rest of them to Bible Study on Tuesday.

Friday night:  So by this time we were tired and dirty, so we got some coffee and sat around before the show.  Oooh ooh and when we went to buy our tickets, we saw them practicing.  We loitered in the area for as long as we could without seeming like weird-os.   And there was this guy who said he was there from Chicago, “Us too!” and that he first fell in love with the song “Hoodrat Friend” so long ago, “Us too!”  and that he’d be in St. Louis on Sunday… had half a mind to see them again.  “We’re seeing two shows too!  You should totally do it!”  It was refreshing to meet another obsessed fan.   

Totally different set list.  Crazy drunk couple kept making out in front of us, finally falling and knocking over (I think) the keyboard although the band kept playing so I’m not so sure.  I’m really short.  I can see pretty much nothing, ever, if you’re wondering.  “If she throws up I’m going to punch her” another girl next to me says and I nod like, “totally,” but inside I’m like, “what a scary thought.”   Anyway they played Hoodrat Friend and Hornets! Hornets! so I was happy.

I bought Wayne a t-shirt this time, and then WHAT? their new live cd/dvd was for sale (it was not for sale the night before) so we scooped that up too.

The next day we pretended we were in college which included:  Sitting in the grass, drinking smoothies, reading in a big study room, going to the campus bookstore to see what the kids are learning in their English classes these days.  Someone told us that they were playing in Bloomington/Normal that night and we got all excited, went to the library and looked it up and saw that it was actually Bloomington, Indiana… totally out of our way.  Bummer, but.  It’s okay.

We listened to our new live CD on the way home so that made up for it.

Spring has sprung in my heart, at least

I’m feeling springy!!!!!!! Despite the real-world circumstances. Such as: it is like 35 degrees outside, and the rain is the slanty kind that hurts your face. At least, that was the state of things when I walked to the train this morning. Plus we’re still in that phase where Spring is a huge jerk (paraphrased Eliot)(of course) that makes it impossible to dress weather-appropriately so you always make it home at the end of the day vowing to wear a different jacket tomorrow.

Nonetheless. You cannot stifle my spring fever! Here, a short list of things I have done to celebrate the very idea of a different weather besides snow:
1. Painted my nails spring yellow at the new (wait for it) salon in my neighborhood! Yep. We have a salon now.
2. Spent one entire day ambling around with no purpose. This was Saturday. And lest you think I just walked around alone (although I would have) I managed to convince my extremely pretty friend Rebekah to join me! We went to Andy’s music, we shared a chocolate thingy, we went to vintage clothing stores.   I said, “I want to do the Hobbit thing where you just leave your front door, and it’s dangerous, and there’s adventure…. have you read The Hobbit?” And she assured me that she didn’t mind that I wasn’t making any sense and we set off to get to know the neighborhood better.
3. Saw Katie and Jake yesterday. Katie just read The Bell Jar and the two of us unanimously agreed that it is not all that crazy of a book. What’s crazy is how people treated depressed people back then. Then we walked around Target and I bought a spring apron (light blue) and things for sangria and I managed to not buy a hot pink etch-a-sketch although it was a close call for awhile there. Then we made spring cupcakes and dyed early easter eggs and took Urban Outfitters Catalogue pictures in our aprons.
4. Listened to music louder than usual, in the car, with the windows down.
5.  Wore a skirt to church.
6. Took pictures of tiny tiny flowers coming out of the ground. Oooh! When they’re so tiny like that it kills me.  There were also these beautiful red buds on a tree outside Wayne’s Starbucks.
7. Purchased a spring bouquet at Jewel, divided it up and displayed it around the house.
8. Looked at a lake.
9. Sat in a rocking chair on a patio.

As you can see, I’m doing all I can to really usher in the new spring season.   I didn’t even mention the flower hairclip I’ve been wearing.