the time utah almost convinced me to move back.

I spent last weekend in Utah, and had the most fun I've had there in a long time. I don't know if it was my mental state prior to arrival or the fact that Seattle hasn't gotten the memo about summer or if it was something else, but it was a perfect weekend. There's nothing about it I would have changed.

The weekend involved the following:

• Staying at Em's house. She loves robots and the number five and is a great hostess.
• A four(ish) hour visit with one of my college roommates, Audrey. She has three adorable children, including one that I met for the first time. I wasn't feeling 100% while I was there and stopped in the middle of our conversation and said, "I just need to lie on the floor". She thought nothing of it and we just kept chatting away - her on the couch and me on the floor.
• Two things as a follow-up to that 1) I love how there are people who you always feel comfortable with even after not seeing each other for a while and 2) I love that I have people in my life who love me for me and don't bat an eye at the fact that I stopped our conversation and crawled onto the floor.
• I bought eye patches for my nephew's third birthday pirate party.
• Ate at Cafe Rio.
• Bought my nephew a sweet dino toy that he called a dragon. To be fair, it was only a "dragon" when it had armor on but when he removed the armor it was a dinosaur. It was a hit.

• Attended the aforementioned pirate party dressed in my best pirate gear, which was really just an eye patch.

• I had my first experience with a dance game on the Kinect. The highlight was my nephew dancing to "Hey Mami, You Sexy", to which he did surprisingly well, and then afterward walking up to his mom and repeating the words to the song. Except his version sounded more like "Hey Mami,  you lexy".
• Shopping in Park City.
• Buying a 1 Terabyte external hard drive. That should do it.
• Chips, salsa, Diet Coke and molten lava cake from Chili's. Dinner of champions.
• Seeing The Help. It's worth it. I cried at least four times - as in wiping away tears, not just getting misty-eyed.
• Nightly midnight snack of the fry/frosty combo.
• Attending church with the family while wearing a dress with the zipper halfway open. The zipper got stuck and there was no fixing it.What's a girl to do?
• Falling in love with my nephew, Bruiser. (Is that still what we're calling him on the internets?) He is SO, SO adorable. Just imagine this: a nearly one year old, blue-eyed, smiling, chubby-cheeked, middle two finger sucking baby. With pirate tattoos. Ugh. Love him.
• I attended my first concert at Red Butte. It was the perfect summer evening: Stars. Crickets. Live music (Brandi Carlile). A crowd that danced and sang along. Good friends/family. 

•  Stopping to see Tatum and her family on my way to the airport. It was rushed, but it's always so good to see them.
• Nearly missing my flight due to a crazy security line. But even being nearly the last person on the plane, I still got an aisle seat. High five.

It was a much needed and perfectly timed break from life.

conversation of the day.

Scott: Camping and hiking is with you.
Me: Oh, right! I have doubts that will actually happen.
Scott: Why?
Me: I don't know...do you have a time frame in mind?
Scott: Not yet.
Scott: Are you getting married anytime soon?
Me: No.
Me: Thanks for pointing it out.

star wars.

My computer's hard drive has been full for quite some time.
And it's been causing me stress for quite some time.
I'm sure you all think that's ridiculous since external hard drives are cheap and blah, blah, blah, but believe me when I tell you it's been complicated.

That and I'm sort of technologically slow. Oh, and stubborn.

Anyway, the good news is that there is now space! Which means I've loaded oodles (yes, oodles) of photos from several cameras and SD cards and my phone going back to early Q2 (yes, I'm speaking in quarters).

Here are some fun ones I discovered from my visit to the Star Wars exhibit (yes, Star Wars) in April.

Double date.

I was trying to appear tough. But that will never happen.

Do I know anything about Star Wars? Not really.
Have I ever even seen a Star Wars film in its entirety? Possibly the first one. Which is actually the fourth or something. Who knows.

But TN was moving soon and he wanted to go and sometimes you do things because your people are excited about it. And I have to admit, I had a good time.

However, you still probably won't catch me watching Star Wars on my own just for funsies.

want.

Isn't this darling?
I'm convincing myself I don't need it.
But I sure do want it.

find it here.

sounds about right.

find it here.

be careful with me.

First of all, I decided today that I want to be Patty Griffin. She's adorable. She has great style. She sings beautiful songs. What else is there?

Second, this song is my new obsession.
I mean, that chorus? YES to all of it.

Be careful how you bend me
Be careful where you send me
Careful how you end me
Be careful with me



It's true all the time, but especially lately I feel like I just need to play this song before interacting with anyone -- half as fair warning and half as some sort of contract.

All the girls working overtime
Telling you everything is fine

Right? Right.

conversation of the day.

Me: I'm going to have a breakdown when I turn 30.
CC: Really? Mine's going to happen at 29.
Me: Why, because your planets aren't aligned? Something is in retrograde?
CC: Well, Mercury is in retrograde right now. But I'll be coming out of a Saturn return.
Me: I don't even know what this means.
CC: Google that sh#!.

and when the 'mallow's flamin'...

Attention Internet: It has come to my attention that today is National S'mores Day.

If you know me, you know I love a good s'more. In fact, in an effort to more readily enjoy them, I have perfected the art of the microwave s'more. (For those who are wondering, 11 seconds for one marshmallow. You're welcome.)

But now I know there is an entire day dedicated to expressing our love for this delicious treat. You'd better believe I'll be celebrating tonight.

Below is the only picture I could find of me enjoying a good s'more. I'll have to remedy that.
(PS - Short hair!!)

married is married is married. is married.

Well, folks, it happened. L&P got themselves married last weekend.

Everything went smoothly. They day was beautiful (despite some clouds early on). The bride was beautiful. They were happy. And I was glad to be a part of it.

Of course LL LB was keeping things classy with her bedazzled bouquet and borderline inappropriate cake topper.

Brother Jared snapped some photos while we were all waiting our turn with the official photographer. This might be one of my favorites ever.

THE POINT.

Speaking of this lady, I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend with her. It's always a pleasure. There's never a dull moment and we're never short on laughter. Please see exhibit A below (don't be mad, Em).

Congrats to the happy couple!
Here's to hoping the next roommate I have for six years is a man. A man that I'm married to.

conversation of the day.

While having a discussion about Shark Week (as well as discussing hopes and dreams of one day seeing Bear Week come to fruition) and whether we'd rather die by shark or bear, the following took place:

Me: Don't get eaten in the ocean Tom. I'd be pissed.
TN: If I do, just know that I went down fighting.
TN: Like a man.
TN: A man being eaten alive.

There would be no doubt.

mockingbird.

There's always a large chance that there will be confusion when making a visit to the nail salon. And I got a little dose of it while I was getting a mani/pedi today.

But first, let me clear something up. Some of you may have seen this tweet earlier and are now questioning my Twitter honesty, since I clearly stated below that I was cancelling a mani/pedi today.

Both are true. I had to cancel a mani/pedi with co-workers because I didn't go into work today (or yesterday) because I haven't been feeling well. BUT I really had my heart set on it. And I had been holding out for a couple weeks on going on my own because I knew this one was coming up. And my toes were looking rough. So I just went and got one at my usual place.

There. Now you know.

So there I was, Nail Man doing my toes and Lee working on my hands, when she noticed the book I was reading, To Kill A Mockingbird.

She got really disgusted and began saying that something was really annoying but I couldn't understand what. Sensing my confusion she pointed to the bird on the cover and said, "I hate that bird. They're always at my house going KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK." [Insert knocking hand motion here.]

Not having much experience with mockingbirds, I just smiled in some sort of agreement. Then she added, "And always leaving holes. So annoying."

It was then that I realized she was talking about woodpeckers. We just went with it.

To Kill a Woodpecker just doesn't have the same ring to it.

today.

-I went to church and it was one of those days where it felt as though everything being taught was prepared specifically for me. I needed that.
-I spent an hour after church catching up with my ex-roomie. Since we no longer live together we've started hugging again. It just felt unnecessary before.
-The weather was very near perfect and I spent the afternoon at Greenlake with lovely people. I fell asleep in the sun and it was wonderful. I only wish I had been wearing less clothing. (For tanning purposes, of course.)
-I took a Round 2 nap in the early evening. It felt right.
-I remembered that I desperately needed to do laundry. So I did.
-I spent the remainder of my evening on a rooftop overlooking the Puget Sound. Again, the weather was perfect. If I could have high-five'd it, I would have.
-Today was a good day.

mystery solved.

Good news! I'm not crazy*!

This morning on my way to work I got a text from my sister: "I have the answer to your lost memory!"
And then she was MIA for nearly four hours.
FOUR HOURS! (I was dying.)
But (!) in the end she solved the mystery.

In 2007 I took a trip to California for my birthday(ish) to see Wicked & Ellen. My sister, Julie, and her friend, Audrey, decided they would drive over from Arizona and meet us in LA for the show. After seeing the show on Saturday we drove to the home of Audrey's aunt and uncle and spent Sunday evening with them. (Do you see where I'm going with this?) We had Sunday dinner with them and after dinner we made pizookie's and played Apples to Apples.

I was right!
We made individual pizookies.
I was at someones aunt and uncle's house.
We had traveled to get there.


The bits and pieces were there; at least enough to jog Julie's memory when she read it.

This case is closed, my friends.



*At least not in this case.

sneak peek: canada edition.

Why did I post this really bad picture of myself as the sneak peek of my weekend jaunt to Canada?
Thank you for asking.

1. Am I standing in the middle of the river or am I not? It's hard to say, really.
2. The water! The rocks! The green! British Columbia really is beautiful. Even in the rain.
3. Note the hood + umbrella. Did it save my hair? No, no it did not. In the words of AB, "Resistance is futile." We were all looking like drowned rats by the time this particular adventure was over (especially me).
4. My face in this photo kind of makes me laugh. I like to think of all the things I could possibly have been saying at that moment.
5. I would never use this picture in a normal post, so for the sake of not duplicating it was the winner.

*I'm having trouble downloading photos onto my computer. You know, because my hard drive has been full for, oh, two years. So once I put another band-aid on it, you should buckle your seat belts.

it's thursday.

• I'm disappointed that no one has come forward with information regarding the Unsolved Memory Mystery. The only other explanation is that I made it up. Which I guess is possible.
• I saw Gillian Welch perform last night. No opener. Just two people on a nearly empty stage with two guitars, a banjo and a harmonica. All good things.
• Two years ago I first listened to Gillian and thought she was too "country" for me. My how things have changed.
• The audience was more than 50% old-ish folks. Definitely much older than the crowds I was used to. But oh how they were loving on Gillian.
• We sat next to a super smelly man. His stench was attacking my nostrils, which makes me wonder why the people he was with didn't tell him? Or how can he not smell himself? Questions I will never have the answer to.
• I participated in a mud run with obstacles last weekend. It was not nearly muddy enough, but still fun. Things it reaffirmed: I still don't like running. I have to talk myself into getting dirty.
• My body is covered in the absolute worst bruises I've ever had. I may or may not have actually considered for a tiny, baby moment that there was internal bleeding going on. A picture text to a friend reassured me that I was not dying.
• I am in possession of 36 mason jars. 
• I went to Home Depot last week and bought wood. And built something.
• On my Home Depot trip I forgot to purchases nails. No matter, we scavenged the walls of my garage and found a few that would do the trick.
• I've been living alone for a week. It's strange, but not strange.
• The strangest part is the fact that the only room in the entire house that has furniture is my bedroom.
• Last night before the show we ate a picnic-like dinner in the car instead of going out to eat. It was kind of refreshing.
• The shocking thing is that I provided the food. You know what that means? I actually had food in my house to put together some sort of meal.
• Which leads me to this: I finally bought a few groceries this week. A few.
• I've been planning LL's bridal shower and tonight's the night. It won't be as extravagant as her dinner parties, but it should still be fun.
• On a related note, it's hard to make the vision you have in your head a reality. It's so much better in my head!
• I'm going to Vancouver, BC tomorrow. I've been trying to convince someone to go with me for two years. It shouldn't have taken this long.
• I'm going to a soccer game while I'm there. That makes three soccer games in the last couple months. I guess I love soccer now.
• Google+ isn't very exciting to me.
• I'm addicted to chips and guacamole from Chipotle. In fact, I think I will eat some for lunch.
• I'm pretty sure I've decided I want to go skydiving for my birthday. I'm probably the last person you thought you'd hear that from.
• One response: "Kills me how the girl that won't step foot in a swimming pool wants to jump out of an airplane." I should not be underestimated.

labels.

CW: I see that we're connected on Google+.
Me: Yup, I have you in my Co-Worker circle.
CW: That is weak!
Me: Should I move you over to Friends?
CW: Nope, don't even bother.

I just can't win with co-workers on social networks.

misplaced.

I have a memory that started crawling to the surface on Sunday afternoon that I just can't place.
LL mentioned making individual cookies in ramekins.

And there it was.

I was in a kitchen making an individual cookie in an apple shaped dish.
We were standing at a kitchen island.
The fridge was behind me.
The sink directly in front of me on the other side of the island.
The cookie dough had already been made and was in a large bowl.
I have no idea who I was with, a friend of some sort, and I think the house we were at belonged to a relative of this friend. Aunt & Uncle, I think.
There were lots of people in this family.
We had traveled to get there.
I can't remember if we slept at this house, but I think it was big and fancy-ish.

For the life of me I can't remember who I was with or where this place was. It's been bothering me for days.

And then tonight, just before drifting off to sleep I remembered another detail.
We played Apples to Apples while our cookies baked.
In the living room that was off to the right of where I was standing in the kitchen.

Please, dear internet friends, if you have any recollection of this fill in the blanks.
Because right now? I feel like a crazy person.

old mother hubbard.

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the cupboard

To get her poor doggie a bone,

When she got there

The cupboard was bare

So the poor little doggie had none.

Except the doggie is actually me.
And the bone is any sort of edible human food.

Not only is my house void of any furniture. The cupboards are also void of food. And dishes. And utensils.

CC came home yesterday after spending some time in Japan and we had the following conversation over gchat this morning.

CC: what are you up to for dinner tonight?
Me: no plans. should we eat some deliciousness?
CC: obviously yes. seeing as there is nothing in the house.
CC: which begs the question: what have you been eating and how?

She asks a very good question.
The Answer: Restaurants. And I know kind people that have taken pity on me.

Don't worry. I have big plans to suck it up and grocery shop this week.

[For those unaware, I loathe grocery shopping.]

Until then, granola bars and string cheese will tide me over just fine.

standoff.

So there I was, on my bed chatting on the phone with my roommate (yes, she was downstairs and I was upstairs) when a giant mosquito eater took aim at my face. That's probably not completely true, but it felt like it. Naturally I freaked out, bobbing and weaving to avoid getting touched by the massive bug, all the while keeping Lindsay on the phone.

I grabbed a shoe to kill it, but it never landed long enough or low enough for me to get it. I tried turning out the lights and luring it into another room, but that didn't work either.

Me: This is it. I'm calling in for backup.
Me: That backup being you.
Linds: [In the whiniest voice possible for her.] Nooo-o-o. You need to do it.
Me: I can't. I can't do it. Put some pants on and come up here.
Linds: [Sounding desperate] My bed is SO warm. Please. Please just do this for yourself.

This might be my favorite conversation we've ever had. And I feel like it sums up our friendship.

In the end she suggested sucking it up with the vacuum cleaner using its go-go gadget arm. Worked like a charm.

Guys, she's moving in a week...

be awesome instead.