These Times, They Are A'Changin'

Today's my birthday.

Yup, you better believe it.

At 2pm, I could officially say that I was 22 years old.

After the hectic busy-ness of my sister's wedding 2 days ago, no one really feels like doing much, other than sitting around, picking our toes, and maybe reading a stray People magazine. I have to work, my parents are getting ready to go home tomorrow, and my sister...well, I know that she has about 2304732089593287 thank-you notes to write. Besides, I had to work, so I didn't expect much. My aunt brought me some flowers and we're going out to dinner tonight, which is really how I wanted to spend my birthday. Well, that and catching up on some much-needed sleep.

But it made me realize how much has changed this year, compared to my birthday a year ago:

1) I'm now a college graduate. Which I suppose means that I'm "grown-up" now, but honestly, I still feel like a stupid, innocent teenager. A stupid, innocent teenager with bills to pay.
2) I'm living with my grandma, while last year, I lived with my other grandparents. What a summer that was. I'm very happy now -- it's almost like living on my own, except that the rent is much cheaper and there are always yummy leftovers in the fridge.
3) My friend Grace was in Philly for the summer.....and now Grace is in Philly, permanently. Huh.
4) Have I mentioned the bills? I have? Yeah, those aren't much fun.

Change is inevitable. Change means progress. Change happens whether we want it to or not. But sometimes, that can be a good thing.

I guess I can look at this as I'm now one year closer to being able to rent a car. Yippee!

Wedding Bliss

This is my sister and her new husband.


I do believe that I have the most beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, blushing-bride sister in the world.


And my brother-in-law ain't a bad-lookin' dude, either.


Love you both! Congrautlations!

Well, at least you haven't done a face-plant in a urinal!

Think you're having a bad day?

Want to complain about it to anyone who will listen?

Because that's how I usually handle bad days.

But isn't that what family and friends are for? To be there for you, in the good times, the bad times, and all the other ones in-between?

My friend Grace* is one of those people I turn to whenever I need to vent about something. Vent, emotionally vomit, squeal with joy -- you name it, Grace has been there with me all the way. We especially like to lament to each other about stupid things that we honestly don't have any control over, but still like to complain about, just to feel like we aren't alone in the world.

One day a few weeks ago, I was writing an e-mail expressing my current discomfort in how busy I was, or something or other. Doesn't really matter, I guess. Point is, I was complaining about something honestly not that bad, but still felt that my voice needed to be heard. The response I got back from Grace was one I don't think I'll ever forget: her mom is a substitute teacher out in Boston. The day before, she was helping one of her students on to the bus, when all of a sudden, apparently he needed to....use the facilities. Being an elementry school, you can't just let students wander off on their own, especially after school hours. So Grace's disgrunted Mom (who just wanted to go home like the rest of us would, I'm sure) helped this little boy back to the restroom. Somehow, in the 3 minutes it would take to use the facilities, Grace's mom hears a wailing noise in the bathroom, and rushes in to investigate. Because how much harm can honestly come to a child in an elementry-school bathroom? When she enters the bathroom, she finds the little boy on the floor, with blood covering his face. It seems that somehow, whether he tripped or just wasn't paying attention (maybe a shiny object?), he managed to hit his face on the urinal. No details as to where his face landed on the urinal (I shudder at the thought), but that shiny piece of porcelin nonetheless. Which teaches me a very valuable perspective on life:

No matter what happens, at least you didn't do a face-plant in a urinal!




*Name has been changed to protect the innocent. Or just because I didn't ask if she would mind if I used her real name. Better safe than sorry, I always say

My Purse, My Suitcase

I’m generally a clean, fairly organized person. I make my bed every day, my sink is generally void of dirty dishes, my DVDs are neatly stacked, and the coffee grounds are washed out of the coffee maker every morning. In a normal world, this would indicate that nearly every aspect of my life is clean, organized, and void of clutter/junk-free.

Until you looked at my purse.

Now, I, like most other women, hate carrying a large bag, because the bigger it is, the more you can fit in it, and then logically, the heavier it is. How on God’s green, magnificent Earth I manage to get some of the stuff in there I haven’t a clue, but somehow it always does. And the sad thing is, I actually use most of these items, on a weekly, if not daily, basis. I can’t even imagine the horror that my purse is going to be once I have kids and a husband someday.

Here are a few things that I usually have in my purse at any given moment:

-- My wallet, weighted down with coins and old Fred Meyer and Target receipts (not to be confused with the random change and Fred Meyer and Target receipts wandering around the inside of my purse)
-- Bobby pins, taken out of my hair from the day before, because frankly I didn’t like that style anymore.
-- A padlock, to be kept on my locker at the gym. It would never occur to me to leave it at the gym. That would just be too logical.
-- Earrings, worn the day, week, or month before that I have worn sometime in the recent past, that usually I spend about 10 minutes looking for the day I want to wear them, only to realize that I left them in a purse, gym bag, my car, etc.
-- A wide variety of Trident or Orbit gum wrappers, some with old gum inside them (like you don’t have that in your purse or random pocket, either?)
-- My camera. You never know when you’re going to come across the perfect sunset, the perfect pair of shoes you need some helpful input on, or a fender-bender in need of some concrete documentation.
-- Sunglasses. I’m forever squinting in the sunlight….or even when it’s not that bright outside.
-- iPod. Because nowadays, it’s just what you do.
-- Flash drive. It’s come in handy fairly often. Most recently to transfer my copy of Midnight Sun onto my computer from my old job.
-- Lip gloss. You name it, I got it. My current favorite is my old standby of Vanilla-Mint Chapstick, closely followed by Bath&BodyWorks’ Vanilla Soda Fountain lip shine. It’s sticky, but it works like a dream. You can bet it’ll be present at my sister’s wedding on Saturday.

Ten years (or more) down the road, I’m sure that I’ll hear the phrase, “Mom, your purse is HEAVY!!!” and be brought back to those young years when I said the same thing to my mom. Who, I’m still convinced, insisted on packing along bricks in her purse for whatever shopping trip we were on. Because you just never know when something like that will come in handy.

Random Thoughts

Right now, there are exactly 3 people in my office. I'm one of those three. The other two are on their phones, and my phone doesn't ring. There's no work for me to do. Which leads me to let my mind wander onto more pressing, important thoughts and ponderisms which I'm so generously going to share. Because honestly, I have nothing better to do:

1) T minus 5 days until my sister's wedding. And I still haven't written my MOH toast (see previous post -- no rhyme-pun intended). I just don't FEEL like writing it! Oh, I've thought about it for a while over the past few weeks or so, and I now have a vague outline as to what I want to say, but when it comes to actually putting it down on paper and then practicing it so that I don't mispronounce something or sound like an idiot? I don't waaaannnnnnnnna.

2) To go down to the cafeteria and get a granola bar, or not to get a granola bar -- that is the question.

3) I have a blister on the pinky toe of my right foot, due to marching 16 blocks and back to the library during my lunch break. For a 32-block treck in 25 minutes in 3-in. heels, that ain't bad.
And that blister kinda hurts. And I've looked at Target for those cute little discreet footie nylons that other people wear in their heeled shoes, but guess what? Due to my lovely genetics, they don't make them in my size. And supposedly their "One Size Fits All!" approach hasn't seen the likes of my feet, because they should know that a size 11.5 foot doesn't exactly fall in the same category as the size 6 foot.

4) I'm having a very important internal debate (almost as important as the granola bar question, which I still haven't decided on): where do I take K to get her nails done? I don't want to be a cheapskate, but jeez, I'm not made of money, either! But then it comes down to the argument of "You should be willing to do anything for your sister!" and the argument of "You aren't made of money!!!" Sheesh. Plus, did you know that if you Google "Portland nail salons," it'll spit about 300 results at you? Try narrowing that down.

5) I keep thinking of things I'd rather be doing if I weren't here at work: like trying out one of the bazillion recipes that I've found. Of course, that's assuming that I have the money to buy all the necessary items, have the time to cook them, and have the extra room on my hips to allow for the fat and calories that would undoubtably take up residence after I ate said recipes.

6) I would really like to take a photography class. I don't have the world's best $1,000 camera, but the one I have isn't half bad, and I'd really like to take pictures like The Pioneer Woman (www.thepioneerwoman.com). Of course, I'd need the $1,000 camera, a few cattle and a hunky cowboy or two to complete the picture. But let's start small, shall we?

7) I can't wait until we get wedding pictures back so that I can see how beautiful my sister is going to look. But then I guess we'd better have the wedding first, right?


I'm breaking down -- going to get that granola bar.