Oh Please No!

As of this typing, there is ice on my brother's scooter.

Ice.

Hey, did mother nature forget what time of year it is? It's almost May! May!!! This is no time for ice! This is no time for cold!

I mean, yeah, I do stay in the house most days, but I wouldn't if it was warm! I have loved the couple of times I've moved my work to the front yard or even a park and watched the kids play. But it seems for every day it's possible to spend in this manner, we get a week of sweatshirts and shivering.

And another thing! Market starts in about two and half weeks. Market means getting up at six on Saturdays to eat a bit, make sure everything's gathered and out to the car, pick up a friend, cut roses, and head off to the park to set up in early morning sunshine (assuming there is sunshine), where we then sit for several hours. Are you telling me I'll be sitting in the cold? I don't like being cold.

I haven't been working on my fingerless gloves because I've been assuming it would warm up. I never managed to make a new hat either. I do have blankets and even a fur cloak, but that's a lot of extra to carry and I can never get anything done when all wrapped up. Plus no one wants to wander and shop at leisure when the weather is cold. Bleh.

In unrelated news, my mother is biking for seven hours today and has commandeered the TV, meaning I either get to watch Gone With the Wind or I can pump music into my ears via headphones.

Meh

"Mom, why isn't the printer working??"

"Well, have you plugged it in?"

*blink blink*

"Arrrrrg!"

I keep saying this stuff about "updating my blog" and "being interesting" and all that stuff. Well, really, I WILL. I'm... I'm working on it. You know. Working. On it. Like a lot.

"Please don't tell me you haven't memorized your part yet."
"Sorry. I haven't."
"Joss! How can you possibly go through life like this? You're late to important meetings, you don't listen to instructions, you don't finish any of your work... what am I going to do with you?"
"Fire me! Oh please, Megan, please fire me!"

The problem is that I've finally learned to Be Efficient and Get Work Done, so instead of goofing of by writing blog posts or short stories or starts of stories or anything I'm actually working. I'm doing at least 5-6 hours hours of work every day, and when 'work' means 'sitting in the same position while knotting little threads over and over and over,' it is not only sometimes tedious but painful. But still! And then there's the picture taking, and the internet stuff, not to mention that I am an unpaid Mother's Helper to my mother...

Then it gets to be after ten or eleven at night. As those on the Board Board know, I get a little loopy and/or incoherent after nine. So here I am, making stupid decisions because I'm loopy (not going to bed is one of those stupid decisions), and I think to myself, "You know, I'm really not that tired or anything. I should... write stuff! Yeah! Like, blog posts and crap! I need to get a lot of writing done if I ever want to have a presence on the internets again, and having a presence on the internets is very important in this day and age..." Thankfully I am much smarter in the morning, though being smarter means I end up having nothing to post.

Cat Charms!

I have a page for the custom orders I have done, to show prospective customers what I can do. So I figured I should have a page for the charms I have in stock, so that people can choose charms too! But I have too many to put on one page and still have it be at all reasonable, so I'm splitting it up.

Here are the cat charms I have:














I tried several things to put numbers to each of these but have failed thus far, so if you want one of these, it will have to be a "this many from the top" kind of affair.

...hi

I wonder, now, if any of my old readers have held on this long. I mean, for me, when someone quits writing I forget about their blog but keep it in my reader, so if they do ever start up again I do see it. "Oh yeah," I say, "that person exists." So I suppose that unless people do spring cleaning, I'm still hanging around. At least for those who use reader or something like that.

I returned to my blog here for several reasons. One: I have a topic! I'm pretty dang excited to announce that we're going to Provo's Farmers Market again this year, and this time we'll start at the start (May 15) and go to the end (October sometime I think) and we'll even have a permanent stall!

Which brings me to number two: Holy crap I have to work my butt off this month. The store averages less than $100 a month, and even last month, a huge upswing in sales, only got us $161. And that's before fees and tithing and such. And the monies for Market are due the 30th of this month, and it's $375. ...yeah.

Number three: Die-hard friends and readers of mine will know that I love to complain. Well, for once it isn't about being sick! I spent all afternoon and evening working on bracelets, and I don't mean making them. I only worked on actual knotting before noon. Then I set out all my bracelets, recorded how much I was selling them for, counted and recorded every single knot in every single bracelet, and used this knowledge of knots to work out how much the bracelets should be if I want to have the price cover both the cost of the materials and pay me $4-$5 per hour. Yeah, that's right, $4-$5 per hour. Fun fact: my biggest bracelet, now priced at $20, has over 1100 knots. Yowza.

Number four: You should totally buy bracelets from me. 'Cause they're awesome. And, as I mentioned, I need the money.

Number five: I believe this is easily known by now, but I'll say it anyway: I'm hoping to use this blog to get more customers to my shop and/or booth. Aside from earning the $375 this month, and then earning that and hopefully more over Market, I really really want to show my brother that I can earn money doing this. He's been very annoyed by me not getting a 'real' job.

That's all for now, I suppose. Hopefully I'll get my book/writing blog back up too; I miss writing!

What Else Needs to Happen???

Teenagers. They're a despised class in pretty much every generation, even more so now. They're lazy. They dress funny. They have no values. They don't care about work or future. They hate their teachers and detest homework. They sit around on iPods and internet all day without a care in the world.

So when a bunch of them stand up, stand together, and protest budget cuts that will end in the firing of a whole bunch of teachers, what is the response of the administration?

“We appreciate the passion. We appreciate that they love their teachers. I think students will get behind any cause that impacts them, and I think that’s a good thing, but I just think that their efforts are a little misdirected. I think the best way they can show passion for their teachers is to be sitting in class. They need to be in class. They need to allow their parents and their teachers to fight this battle because that’s where it really lies.” - Melinda Colton, district spokeswoman

In other words, they got patted on the head and sent back to their rooms. No, don't fight this, kids. Leave it to the parents and teachers. Leave it to the adults. Leave it to the adults who probably fully support the actions of you kids. Leave it to the adults, because when layabout teenagers start protesting with shouts of "save our teachers!" you get a lot of attention and we'd really rather solve this our way.

You see, we want to raise taxes and yet make budget cuts. We administrators need to afford our nice suits when our teachers are taking second jobs. And, above all, we need to avoid doing this the obvious way. ("...a legislative committee voted down a proposal that would have equalized funding between the Canyons and Jordan school districts, created by a split last year. The measure would have helped fill a 30-million dollar budget deficit faced by the Jordan School District." - Barbara Smith, abc news)

This protest, which came to my attention by watching the news tonight, was only a reminder of an old source of anger. But I'll get into that tomorrow, and leave you with a link to the article I got my quotes from. Jordan high school students walk out in protest

My Bracelet Adventures

I have, by now, created several custom bracelets for people. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of all of them, but the pictures I did get I will put up here, and add to it as I do more orders. This will be the link I give when people want to see examples of my work. Hooray!

This one I made for a young woman to give to her friend. It was, at the time, the biggest bracelet I had attempted. Very wide, very long. But it turned out really well!




"Lambie Pie" "nishreen" and "THE NIAM." No, I don't know what the last two mean, but they look pretty good, don't they? The middle one uses rather difficult alphabet, one that does not at all translate from paper to knotted thread. I had to mess with every letter, some of them extensively, but it came out well.



These... are not the best pictures in the world. But I have to go with what I've got! Anyway. Two bracelets, one saying "you'll never" and the other "walk alone." Only no full stop there, but I have to put one there because of grammar. Yep.

I made this one for my cousin. It made me very happy to be able to finally use this alphabet. I'd been looking for an excuse to use it since I'd discovered it.

And another bracelet that I was happy to undertake for my own reasons! I'd been wanting to try out switching colors for a long time, but didn't have enough drive to create my own project. So it was a happy day that presented me with the chance!

An Etsy friend of mine requested this bracelet because the charm reminded her of her cat. She told me his name and that he was grey and white, then we set a price and she told me to do what I wanted. So I did the cat's name with cat ears on either side of it.

The Middle of December

Christmas is in a week, a week from today, and I work that day. And I'm excited to work that day. I only wish I worked in the Magic Kingdom, but Downtown Disney is good enough. And on that day we'll have Santa Goofy coming to Downtown instead of regular Santa! We'll get a character!

Oh, look, there are now three ornaments on the tree that don't have anything to do with Disney.

Back home, Siri cut her hair again and has it boyishly short, my sister is assistant stage manager in her school musical, Caiti is talking all the time... I miss those guys. I miss them all. I miss my room, my cats, my books. I miss having my own vehicle and being able to go to the store without having to take up two hours of my day. But I'm going to miss this place when I leave.

I can't stand to think about the fact that whatever new show comes after the castle show will not be seen by me (at least not in person) for at least a year, and probably a year and a half. I try to forget that I will soon be leaving my roommate to film cute mouse moments by herself. I'm heartbroken that my days off will no longer be spent meeting characters, watching shows and parades, and riding rides. And I hate the thought that I will have to get a job where telling stories, dancing for no reason, playing with remote control cars, and making magic will no longer be in my job description.

When I first got here, I was excited, but I couldn't help wondering how on earth I was going to survive away from my family. Now my time here is almost up, and I know how I survived: I grew to love this place almost as much as I love home. My family will always be of utmost importance to me, but I'm starting to learn that other things can be important too.

And there's also the fact that I'd much rather sweat than put on two layers. : D

Did I Write This?

A quick manipulation to make the visiting team player think that the home team player had dodged when he actually had not, and the home team player was home free and had gained another six points.

“See, those humans are right when they say you should save for a rainy day. In our case meaining when you tick off your parents so much they disown you and cut off their funding."

“What, you mean like acting as if the world revolves around you and hoping you will fall madly in love with her, sweep her off her feet, and make out with her or perhaps more in the backseat of your sexy, sexy car?” Kristy said. “Yeah, I might have noticed something like that.”

It seemed that Gaia knew this, for Tania had barely sat down when she was informed she had new duties. “The girl who’s been carrying water down there complains of the walk, and she often ‘can’t find’ Caspian, who may be a bit odd but doesn’t deserve to go thirsty,” Gaia said. “I thought you would enjoy the walk, being as restless and unused to this type of work as you are, and you seem to not mind Caspian.”

Doc smiled and sat down again, leaning back in a stretch. "Well, nothing can go wrong with the sainted Tabitha Talem watching the table. Have fun."

After dinner it was again time for boredom and general despair. Amber always insisted on getting homework done in a timely manner, and though settling down to do my homework every evening in her room had become habit, I still wasn’t very happy about it.

It's That Time

Today is October second. This time next month, I need to be up to about 5,000 words.

Yes, my friends, NaNoWriMo is approaching, and in honor of that approaching-ness, my blog is getting revamped. It's been coming for a while, but I wasn't sure I was going to do it for a while because I wasn't even sure I wanted a blog anymore. But what with me doing NaNo (NaNo bloggers like to read other NaNo blogs), and the fact that I have a shop I could and should be advertising, yeah I'll keep up the blog.

So... changes will happen around here! Slowly! In between keeping the apartment clean, remembering to eat, making merchandise, shipping merchandise, writing novels, oh yes and working at Walt Disney World there is also that.

It May Not be Much, but it's Cool!

So, someone bought one of my bracelets on Etsy, which means I have earned $5! Exciting! Once I get my paypal account verified so I can actually accept the $5, I will probably use it to pay my Etsy fees. So I haven't really earned anything.

But! I'm still incredibly excited. I love making bracelets (it's pretty much all I do in my free time, aside from an occasional trip to a Disney park), and it's awesome to think that I could be paid for doing so! I'm also excited to start using other talents of mine to make merchandise for my shop. And I have talked to several of my family, suggesting things they could make that I could put up for sale! What fun this is!

Right now I'm working on Halloween bracelets. Here's my favorite:



If you don't know what this is referring to, you need to find and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Then you will know. And I seem to be becoming quite fond of bracelets with words. I also have 'HAUNTED' and 'HALLOWEEN' up for sale, 'MWA HA HA' is finished and needs to be added, and 'SPOOKY' and 'BEWARE' are in the works.

Also: I now know most of the songs in The Nightmare Before Christmas! I signed up for Netflix so I could watch movies on my laptop while working (I didn't bring any DVDs and my disk drive is broken), and aside from watching HSM3 and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? once each, I have been watching TNBC all the time. Although it keeps distracting me from my work, because I want to actually watch and not just listen while occasionally glancing up at the screen...

Well, I'm out. I have work today, so I need to get some work done before I go.

Maybe I should start an Etsy store?

One of the frequent topics on this blog is me being sick. Stomach problems usually, with the occasional bad cold or allergy attack thrown in.

Now I'm in Florida, I seem to have left that all behind. I was able to stop taking all my prescription medications without any ill effects. In fact, the only hint of my old life I seem to have brought with me is the tendency to be rather weak when I haven't been eating regularly, and even that usually only popped up as momentary dizziness after getting off of a ride. I've been feeling absolutely great, sound in body and happy in mind.

Until, of course, I spent two days coughing my lungs out, finally went to the doctor, was diagnosed with what I like to call the Super Flu (H1N1 virus, swine flu, Influenza A... take your pick, I have more!).

Headache. Fever. Aches. Dizziness whenever I tried to get up. Inability to ingest anything other than juice (and that in copious quantities). Coughing that threatened to kill me. Being drenched in sweat every single time I woke up.

Now that I am on day 6 of being ill and day 4 of official respiratory isolation, things are finally starting to look up. I mean illness-wise. So I am able to fully realize that I am BORED. Bored bored bored. No human interaction! Well, okay, I can call people, but talking to my sister makes me fall asleep, my mother isn't feeling well and keeps have to run off to take care of children, and everyone else keeps going to work or something. And I have another two and a half days of this. And my internet has been really really sketchy.

I'm sure that I started this post with an idea in mind other than to complain, but I have completely forgotten it. I suppose you'll have to be happy with what I have here. : D

Day One

Apparently, Orlando is close enough to hurricane... Bill? I think? to be experiencing some life difficulties due to that. Example: it took me about five minutes to get off the bus, find my building, and drag (yes, drag, I am so getting luggage with wheels) my luggage over. In that time, I was soaked. Soaked. As in, water-pouring-from-my-hair my-clothes-are-dripping soaked. Whee!

Doing all the paperwork was great fun. I was in lines for over an hour and a half. However, it wasn't that bad, because the casting building is a wonderful place. The chairs were colorful, and some of them were funny shapes. Everyone was smiling. The fine art on the walls was of Disney characters, with realistic cracks painted in the walls that made up the painting world. The undersides of overhead walkways were painted to look like bridges. I loved it! I was stupid to not take more pictures, but here is the one I did take: the front door.



Many many Disney people arrived today. Apparently, they like to schedule large groups on the same day. Something about efficiency. Anyway, this means that many many people needed to go to Wal-Mart to buy necessities. Buses run all day past our apartments, buses just for Cast Members, that take us to our many work locations and to nearby stores. Mainly Wal-Mart. First, my roommates and I missed three buses (one was too full, one passed us by, one was just finishing up a shift and couldn't take people). Then we got to Wal-Mart and discovered absolute chaos. All open checkout lines were several carts long. All the hangers had been purchased. After gathering and purchasing, we had to load everything on to the second bus that came up (the first one was, as you may guess, full), only to unload it and carry it all back to our apartment. And there was a lot of stuff.



We have to show ID whenever we come into the complex, so Heather and I held ours in our mouths so we wouldn't have to put our bags down. Finally home, we put the groceries away (the mostly-melted ice cream was put away first) and then I set about preparing my dinner. Which I needed tuna for. Only after putting in several other ingredients did I realize that the can opener that should come with our apartment was missing.

However terrible all that may seem, I am very excited. I've been laughing all day, even as it seemed that everything was going wrong. I'm in Florida! To work at Walt Disney World! And my assignment was to the main park, in a huge toy store!!

Also, lizards are awesome.

A Rose

Another market day, another barely breaking even. However, I still don't want to stop doing this.

1. Saturdays = days everyone WORKS HARD at home. I am instead sitting in a booth talking to people and making bracelets.

2. I like hanging out with my sister, and hanging out with yellow m&m today was also fun.

3. The kittens, the way people react to the kittens, and all the change we get in our "Coins for Kittens" fund make me smile a lot.

4. I like kids. Kids like kittens. Lissi and are are calling our booth the unofficial market babysitting booth.

5. Sometimes interesting things happen. Today we could see right out the back of our booth to where an audience was gathered, listening to a live country band playing mostly religious songs, ones with many declarations of love toward the Lord and such. I'm sure the audience was more fun to watch than the band.

6. Today, while watching the audience of the band, I had noticed one woman in particular. She was almost constantly dancing. She spun slowly, moved her arms around, and later waved flags, all while her eyes were closed and her head was tipped back. I've been a Utah Mormon all my life, in Provo and Orem even, and I'm sure most of you know what that means. In this particular case, it means that I have very rarely had any contact with other religions. So this display of... faith? was something I had seen very little of. I must admit I at first thought it was rather silly. However, as I kept watching her, it seemed rather beautiful. It made me think of myself. I never want to bear my testimony by standing behind the pulpit and talking, you see. I'd much rather do it by singing. And by dancing, that woman was showing her love for God as surely as I do it by singing. I am pleased to say that what I at first thought of as odd turned out to be spiritual.

7. Lissi and I have roses for sale, fresh and dried. They are not very popular. To avoid taking all of the fresh ones home, we have developed a habit of giving them away as we pack up, usually to all the small children that are still hanging around playing with our kittens. Today, I looked at the roses, looked up, and saw that aforementioned woman, still dancing. I chose the prettiest rose we had and gave it to Lissi, insisting that she give it to the woman. She did so, embarrassedly, and returned to say that she'd been given a hug, and a kiss. Also, it seemed the woman took it as a spiritual experience - here she is, a woman who absolutely loves roses, worshipping at a concert, and all of a sudden a young woman comes up to her and gives her a rose. As she told Lissi, "God knows I love roses."

Next week will be my last week before I leave for Florida. If my friend wants to, she and Lissi will continue the booth in my absence, and I will send friendship bracelets from Florida for them to put up for sale. Despite the fact that I am heading for an exciting experience, I cannot help but wish I could continue market myself. The sitting around, the not making any money, the being too hot or too cold - so what? I like it. I don't know why.

You Guys!!

You guys! I cut my hair off! Well, I mean, I paid a stylist to cut it off. And it's not all gone. But still!

Before today, I had never cut my hair above my shoulders, and I always had the longest hair out of the girls in the family. Today, when she cut it above my shoulders and asked if that was good, I asked her to cut it shorter! And now, if we're talking proportionally, I about have the shortest hair of the girls!

It's short, you guys! And it makes me look younger! Which might be a bad thing, considering the 16-year-old that was flirting with me the other day! But oh well! It's cute!

I'm kinda excited!

Magnetic Poetry

"blue chocolate glass"

"they were able through water and blood through innocent song and wonderful bloom to believe the moon & buy the sky"

"our siamese steal always is heaven in velvet"

"though blues they are my wants never embrace it"

"a midnight kiss feeds my emotion we sing & have the world"

"she had a bowl of peace and light"

"I want to almost look"

"so thick after shadow so hard above days"

"sleek hiss I let her stalk"

"ever at home not sofa that guy of cool humor no jazz by which we lounge"

"your brother means life"

"their night can take two cigarettes"

"coolish lad hunts love"

"they marry neon yarn here"

"little shimmer across life"

"kind felines sit by this chap"

"sweet heart will dream & endure she has quiet power"

"you overwhelm me charm me you love my friend"

"silver word with easy love"

"enjoy the sacred goddess language"

"always one strong companion"

Farmers Market!

Note to self: put new batteries in camera before next Saturday.


My friends, canopies that advertise themselves as 'easy up' are LYING to you. LYING. They say you only need two people, and you just get it out, jiggle it until it opens, put the top on, extend the legs, and voila! a canopy. But that is not how it goes. First you get it out. Then you pull with all your strength, switching off legs, until you think it is out correctly. Mostly. Then you extend the legs. Then you realize that you should have put these tent pole things in the circle thing before you extended the legs. Then you borrow a stepladder and try to put the tent pole things in the circle things. Then you contemplate calling the aunt who loaned you the canopy and insisted it would be a snap to set up. Then you give up and lower the legs. Then all three of you (did I mention there were actually three people there, not the normal two? So this should have been easier than claimed, right?) take turns trying to put the tent pole things in the circle thing without breaking them, and by some miracle the last one to try manages to do it. Then you extend the legs again. Then you realize that the top things extend too, and exert some muscle there as well. Then you have to position it where you want it, since it has traveled considerably from where you put it to begin with.

Then you spend the whole day shifting yourself and/or the canopy to try to stay out of the sun.

Sigh. Well, it did keep me from getting sunburned, I suppose, and it kept Tucker from dying. Note to self: remember to bring a cooler for the food so Tucker can't eat it. And it protected poor Dano, whose medication makes him very susceptible to sunburn. And it provided shade for the few customers who came to our booth at the Farmers Market.

Ah, we made a few dollars. Enough to treat ourselves to SubZero ice cream after, and still have enough to buy more supplies. I am a little sad that no one wanted to buy the roses... but Lissi did say, when she finally came, that she wouldn't have put most of them up for sale. My knotted bracelets were a big hit... but that means that I have to work hard this week to make more. Ah well. I got myself into this.

Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that y'all should come down to Pioneer Park next Saturday between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm (the earlier the better, if the heat is anywhere near that of last Saturday) and pay us a visit. I won't even make you buy anything!

Love,

Bob, maker and seller of friendship bracelets, illuminated pages, and hot pillows; teamed up with Lena, maker and seller of crocheted things, and Lissi, maker and seller of cross stitched things and wish bracelets, and writer of signs because she's much better at calligraphy than I am.

What's New?

Here are some things that, if I weren't so lazy, would have gotten full post treatment when they happened. Now, I'm just going to do them in list format. You may not be entertained, but at least you'll be informed!

My parents spent last weekend in California for some sort of conference, leaving me in charge of everyone. When they came back, I handed out awards to my sibings:
Boo and Ty got the Complainers award
Siri and Boo got the Drove Me Up the Wall award
Boo got the Helpful award
Random and Dex got the Very Helpful I Owe You Lunch award

Random, Ty, and my mother are training to walk a marathon. I have yet to be able to do a half-hour workout three times a week.

My mother's leg muscles are intimidating.

Tucker has had his last kitten-visit to the vet. Not only has he had all of his shots, he is also now unable to procreate. Yay!

Tucker cried almost nonstop for the first few days after we got him. Then he seemed to entirely forget how to make noise - not a growl, mew, meow, or cry. He'd purr occasionally, but that was it. If he wanted food, he would stare at his dish and attack us as we came in. If he was lonely, he'd throw himself against the door. Now that he's been neutered, he's rediscovered his voice, and uses it to order playtime, food, and help.

Caiti walks! She still uses crawling as her main mode of moving, but her walking is good enough that she no longer looks like she'll fall over every time she takes a step. We went to the waterpark a few days ago, and she could even make her way across the grass with relative ease.

I have finally acquired the California address of Goober, my dear departed friend.

Random and I are working several hours a day preparing to have a booth at the Farmers Market.

I will be having a recital before I leave for Florida. You are all invited!

I plan to cut my hair really short before I go to Florida. How short? Well, I'm going to tell the stylist (my cousin who has done my hair before and has my trust) to cut it off as short as will look good.

If anyone wants to give me a gift, look for the game Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. I played it with some of my brother's friends on the Fourth, and I think it was great fun.

I had better get off now. I have bracelets to make, a room to clean, and voice lessons to prepare for.

Combining

"Prince and Paris, huh. You know, I think there should be a law against celebrities naming their own children. And Mormons too. Well, not that it should be illegal for them to name their own children, but that they should have to go through some sort of submission process."

"Yeah. And then we wouldn't end up with names like Renesmee."

"Oh... oh yes. Sweet Stephanie Meyer, what have you done to our culture?"

So on the way home from work, we were discussing what certain names would have been/would be if a Bella/SMeyer way of thinking were behind them.

Me, a girl: Marlene

Me, a boy: L'ray

My son: Freff, Alice (a surprising number of guy-name-mashups came out sounding like girl's names), Nalex, Alaniel

There were no interesting daughter names, sorry. We were using the names of guys I knew and it was possible for me to marry (ie, they're single and my age), and I only knew the name of one mother of one of these guys, and her name is the same as my mother's so that wasn't fun at all.

Also! We were at Wal-Mart and came upon a group of girls dressed in matching gold and red uniforms. Cami shrieked. The girls burst into laughter (meaning giggles; these are teenage girls we are talking about). As we continued on our way, for the next several minutes we could hear the story being retold (one girl would shriek, and the others would all start laughing) and we saw a couple of girls on the floor, they were so overcome with mirth. During the rest of our trip, any red-and-gold girls we saw anywhere in the store would burst into giggles. Fun times.

My Week of Wonder

Sunday: Goober and her family drive out to California. I am sad.

Monday: my 21st birthday! My cake was... odd... and awesome.

Tuesday: The cold of DEATH takes over my system. I spend the whole day in bed, playing games. I start to notice that I can't taste things.

Wednesday: I spend most of the day in my bed, and then I spill something all over it. The futon in the living room becomes my domain. I still can't taste things.

Thursday: I can sometimes taste things! I am still spending most of my time on the couch, however. I try to not be sick, and I manage to shower, get dressed, do a bit of exercise, and clean the kitchen a bit before I am driven back to the couch with a horribly upset stomach, a huge headache, and cramps that come out of nowhere. Also, Siri drops Caiti on Brekke, and Caiti's forehead comes into contact with Brekke's tooth. Result: Caiti's first stitches!

Friday: I didn't get to bed until 2 am (whenever I have a cold I have trouble falling asleep and have fallen into the practice of staying up doing things until I'm exhausted) and then had to get up at 6:30 to take Mother somewhere so she could go on a choir tour. Then I go to WalMart to get supplies for a party. Then I start shouting "Banana!" and laughing uncontrollably and being really cranky. I finally take a nap, but so late that I have little time to do things and I'm late for my own party. Also, I can taste and smell again, but almost completely lose my voice within a few hours.

Friday night: Sparkly sweethearts are gross, I love my cousins and their witty witty minds, yes I really am that aware of innuendo, I'm glad I'm not the only person who wonders how vampires get it on when they have no blood, and I will never think of baseball the same way again. Also: pants!

Saturday: I'm still coughing, my voice is still really low and sometimes I can't talk at all, I actually took a shower, got dressed, and did some laundry (note to self: go put the load in the dryer!!), and I'm way looking forward to going out to lunch with a friend of mine.