Sure, it's common sense for most people

But others may not yet know of the precautions one must take with one's grillz (open image in new tab and see "Cautions" at end). The only Care Instruction I have violated it #7.

When I grow up

I just spent a little bit of time reading online profiles of cats at the San Francisco SPCA, and I decided that what I want to do when I grow up is adopt cats. I love them! Except I don't want to be the weird cat lady, and I don't think there's much money to be made in adopting cats, but except for those minor details...tails, heh heh

Jesus is coming – duck!

Earlier this week we watched Johnny English, and one of the extra features is "Observation Test" that shows you a short clip of the movie and then gives you multiple choice answers, and if you get them right, you automatically earn your license to kill or something equally cool. My title is one of the choices given to the question of what some character had tramp-stamped on him (the real answer was "Jesus is coming – look busy"), and I distinctly remember finding the "duck!" answer quite hilarious. But I suppose that could have been the gin and tonic talking laughing.

Saturday marked the 2nd annual "Screwed out of green beer on St. Patrick's day." When, oh when will it ever become a reality? I just know that green Coor's light tastes infinitely better than boring old beer-colored Coor's light – why must I be deprived of this succulent beverage? Haha.

This week I did something I hadn't done in a very long time – spent the entire evening from when I got home at 6:30 until 11 reading for pleasure. I finally finished a novel (another thing I hadn't done in a while). I know it was good because it made me cry (not the only criterion for a novel being good, but if it's there, it usually is). And it was one of my favorite kinds of cries – the one that you're doing while thinking both, "This is so sad and also so beautiful."

The story of my first memory of crying over a book: In fifth grade we read Where the Red Fern Grows. During one of our in-class reading days, I unfortunately reached the last section. It was so sad! I cried and cried. Trying to shield my face from the rest of the class by putting my head down and the book up only resulted in getting my desk all wet. How humiliating! Of course fellow fifth graders had absolutely no qualms about pointing out my crying and laughing about it. Next time I'll have to relay the story of what stands out as my worst public cry experience.

This commercial's song has my favorite lyrics ever

My boss gave me this mug today. So awesome.

When I was home for lunch

[I'm in the kitchen and hear a knock at the door. I wasn't expecting anyone, we rarely get drop-ins, and one of my housemates was home, so I figure it's for her and ignore it. Then the doorbell rings. I wait, assuming the housemate will get it. She doesn't. So I go over and open the door to someone I've never seen before.]

Me: Hi.
Her: Hi.
Me: [blank stare]
Her: I'm here for a massage.
Me: [The blank stare comes back for a bit while my mind races, trying to come up with an appropriate response.]
Her: Am I at the wrong house?

Luckily at about the same time, I think of the woman down the street who gives massages and direct her there. But I sort of wish I would have invited her in and had her lie down on the couch in the living room. Or maybe the broken futon in the back room. I wonder how long it would have taken her to realize I wasn't a licensed massage person. Or if I could have made some money off of her.

New personal best

Time: 1 hour
Strides: 9300
Miles: 6.5
Calories: 770

That's like 2000 strides more that my previous personal best. And the nicest part was that that last 30 minutes went by like nothing. Just watch, now tonight or Saturday will probably be hell. Why is that?

In my possession

Because, what else were you going to do on Sunday?

Not sure what would tie this all together

Some days I think I could be an exercise nut. You know, one of those people who runs like daily. And enjoys it. Like yesterday I felt this way – I ran* for 50 minutes straight and felt like I could have kept going. But I wanted to make sure I could get in my 15 minutes of stairs and have time to stretch afterward, so I quit. (*and when I talk about "running," I'm talking about on the elliptical; I'm not so good yet(?) at the pure running) But I haven't forgotten those other days that are not so good. Like last Saturday. My personal experience is that it takes me a little while to enjoy running – like usually about 15 minutes. Those first 15 minutes are sort of painful and I want to quit, but I just force myself to keep going. Last night it was only 10 minutes. But last Saturday, ugh, last Saturday was 35 minutes. And that really sucked. Great! I got to enjoy the last 10 minutes! Woo hoo! I'm glad the vast majority of times are not like that; I'd probably give up all together.

Random stats from my workout last night: 3 out of 4 cars of the people who shut the place down last night were new model (2003 or newer) Toyota Corollas; 3 out of 5 people who shut the place down last night were BC grads.

What else of interest from life recently... Last Friday I went to a pool hall with one of my friends. When I think pool hall, I think smoky/hazy, dim/dingy, but this place was well lit and not too loud and didn't seem that smoky (though the clothes I wore that night beg to differ...even six days later). It was fun except that I'm incredibly poor at pool, so playing in a crowded place devoted to the sport was quite embarrassing at times. But it was fun. And I even got hit on. Evening=success! Haha.

When I was leaving, it was time for songs that evoke memories. The first song that came on the radio was Kokomo, which always reminds me of this friend who I had been with that night since it's in the movie Cocktail, and we watched that a lot in middle school (she loved Tom Cruise). The next song that came on was Rock the Boat – that wonderful song that Travis the Trout sang. Can I just say I can't wait for Easter to get here?! Then there was song disappointment: My most hated song currently is Lips of an Angel. I can not stand it. And what came on the radio? A country version of the song. Gag.

Last night I watched a movie that totally reminded me of a movie the mod would watch. Not only was it a stalker movie, it was a stalker movie with Shannen Doherty.

And the logic here is...?

"When you're a war hero [like McCain], you have less to prove on the character front."
–Richard Land, head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention

From our launch party last Thursday

I even broke my six-months-of-no-dessert-or-candy challenge and had a piece because, hello?!, it's a cake with an effen picture of the website on it! Plus, I justified it this way: Let's say I didn't drink alcohol on principle but my church used wine for communion; I'd drink it then, right? Right?

Bluffton bus accident

Le Sigh

I easily worked over 60 hours this week. Easily, not as in it was easy for me to do, but as in I have no doubt that it was over 60 hours except I didn't keep track exactly. Hm. If I'm doing that, shouldn't I be making three times what I am now? And have a J.D. after my name? Alack, alas. But the end is in sight! Thank goodness, because I can't take another day of working until 2 a.m. like last night, er, this morning. Must. Sleep.

Dream

Last night I had a dream that one of my college professors started playing in the NFL, which apparently had been a life-long dream of his (in my dream, not in real life...well, as far as I know anyway). Who knew?! I must have been living or working in California or something, and his NFL team was in Colorado, but it wasn't the Broncos because their jerseys were black and silver. Well, in one game he ruptured something huge on/in his leg (yes, I'm being very scientific here), and the injury was life-threatening. For some reason Brian's boss flew him out to Colorado to go check on former professor. Brian emailed his boss about his condition, and when I tried to read it, the boss said I couldn't because if it were intended for me, Brian would have said so. So of course at this point I was incredibly worried about former professor. Then there was this mass pilgrimage of BC grads to Colorado to show support for former professor...in the form of a parade. It was all very touching. The last thing I remember before waking up was that I was attending some huge concert at the football stadium with lots of Hip Hop/Rap artists that Brian was loath to attend with me, so I don't know what ever happened to former professor. Apparently I had more important things to do.

First date

Fifteen years ago, I went on my first date. I don't remember exactly which day of the month it was, but it was for Valentine's Day, so it was sometime around now. I had just started "going out" with the guy about a week before Valentine's, so of course we wanted to do something for the special day. We decided we were either going to go to a movie or go roller skating with another couple. I preferred the movie option, and that's what we ended up deciding on. I remember being so nervous to ask my parents whether I could go, and I kept putting it off. Our desks were in the same module of four in fifth grade, so he would ask me every day if I'd found out yet if I could go, and for several days I had to report that I'd "forgotten to ask." After a few days of that response, he finally wrote me a little reminder on a scrap of notebook paper that read: "Ask About Movie." I'm pretty sure I still have that note tucked away in an old diary somewhere...and I think that old diary includes doodles of his name with hearts around it and such...yeah, it's a real piece of work. I finally did get up the courage to ask my parents, and by their response it seemed like no big deal, so I guess I shouldn't have been so worried. The next big worry was a Valentine's gift. I don't know why, but I ended up buying one of those large Hershey's bars. Another excerpt from my diary I think reads something like, "I hope he doesn't think I'm cheap!" Haha. On the big night, they dropped me off at the theater, and I met my boyfriend there, and he brought a friend! Too funny! We exchanged our gifts in the back of the theater before the movie. He'd gotten me little heart-shaped, gold-colored earrings. And I'm not sure he was too impressed with his large candy bar. (Oh well, I made up for it by the time his birthday came around with a KU t-shirt. His birthday was about two weeks before mine, and sometime in those two weeks, he broke up with me, so overall, he came out much better on the gifts—sort of a recurring theme with a couple of boyfriends I've had...) Then it was time for the movie—Hook—and we sat in one of the side sections, and his friend (who I will always remember as the boy who had the coolest sparkly silver retainer) sat right behind us. And I can honestly say that I had the yawn move used on me during that movie. I love that.

They wanted us to get the scarlet fever!

This is a sentence spoken to me by my grandma yesterday when I visited my grandparents to deliver some Valentine's candy and flowers. Grandma has a lot of stories, and one of the ones she told me yesterday went something like this:

When we [she and her sisters] were younger, we always made our own valentines. Norma, she could draw real well. We made these valentines where we cut out a little door and put tin foil behind there, so it would look like there was light in the windows. One year, our neighbors all had the scarlet fever. And if you had the scarlet fever, you weren't supposed to send mail, and you had to have your house fumigated. Well, I guess those boys were mad at us that we didn't have the scarlet fever and we got to celebrate Valentine's, and they sent us Valentines in the mail! Now why would they do that?! They wanted us to get the scarlet fever! Well, we put those Valentines real quick in the oven and burned them up. We didn't want to get the scarlet fever!

I know "the scarlet fever" is no laughing matter, but I was trying so hard not to let a huge smile overtake my face. "They wanted us to get the scarlet fever!"

Paragraphs beginning with "This"

This is pretty cool-lookin'.

This weekend I saw and excellent movie: Flags of Our Fathers. Like a review I read, you can't help but make the mental connection between the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and the now infamous "Mission Accomplished." I had no idea of the story surrounding that famous flag-raising picture. Incredibly interesting and a great movie. Now I really want to see Letters from Iwo Jima.

This past Saturday I tried my first sushi with actual raw fish. We tried the salmon. I thought it was really quite tasty and didn't feel at all grossed out about it. I'm anxious to go back to this place and try more kinds. Plus, they have plum wine, which I think goes really well with sushi.

This was Super Bowl weekend. I didn't know who won until I got to work this morning and looked at CNN. In lieu of watching "the big game," I watched various tv shows I had taped last week and read from Rethinking Christ and Culture, which is a text for my class and which I found myself mostly agreeing with. Also yesterday we had another successful young adult potluck; I made barbecued pulled pork sandwiches.

This was not a good weekend for my uncle in terms of college basketball. He's a WSU fan and a KU fan. On Saturday he went to the WSU game in the afternoon, and they lost, and then he drove to Lawrence to watch the KU game in the evening, and they lost too. That reminds me I failed to mention a few weeks ago that he gave us his tickets for a WSU game he couldn't make it to, and my dad and I went; that was a lot of fun. And they won that game.

This is feeling really boring to begin every paragraph with "This," (though I'm not so naive as to think that's what's making this post boring...) so I think I will call it quits.

I guess somebody's gotta do it

Well, last night I got to see BC MBB break a losing streak...a 45-game losing streak...of the other team. Oops. That team hadn't won a game since the first game of last season.

Nervous as a little schoolgirl

So I'm taking (auditing) a class. It begins today, and I'm really scared about it. I think mostly because I'm afraid it will feel really awkward and also because I'm not entirely (at all) sure about what expectations are / how much I should participate and such. Well, wish me luck. T-15 minutes!