Oh!

So a few months ago I got into Korean pop kind of by accident. Korean pop is kind like a chocolate bar infused with crack: delicious and instantaneously addictive. And if Korean pop is crack-addled chocolate then the girl group SNSD is the Belgian chocolate that costs, like, three hundred dollars a pound.

It's a little pathetic how much I fangirl over them, but SNSD is really unlike any other pop group I know. SNSD is made up of nine girls 19-22 years old and they churn out cute and ridiculously catchy pop songs. Which I know sounds like any other pop group but these girls are different.

SNSD has class. The cutesy trend is dying out in Korean and most groups are going for the mature, sexy music videos and it usually comes out slutty. Like, so slutty that three girl perfomers' videos have been banned from public television. But SNSD have no slutty vidoes. No slutty dancing. No slutty photoshoots. None of them are in rehab or pictured with drugs or alcohol or coming home from some guy's house. They know they are the role models of a bunch of younger girls and they act like it.

Besides, when you see them on reality or variety shows they are so much fun to watch. All nine of these girls are best friends. Real friends. It's not a show, or a facade. They all live three to a room in an apartment, and despite the rigorous schedule, general lack of sleep, and prolonged time away from their families, there is no catty girl drama. You watch them in interviews playing with each others hair, calling each other ridiculous nicknames, making fun of each others habits. These girls love each other and they connect well with an audience so you kind of feel like you're apart of this giant awesome group of friends when you're watching them.

Which makes me miss my giant awesome group of friends. Ack. Seriously, you guys in Texas, I miss all of you all the time. I cannot wait to see you this summer. Maybe you guys can all carpool and head to my house for a party/sleepover. How awesomely epic would that be?

But yeah. If you like jpop I suggest you look into SNSD. They are totally awesome and I seriously think I'm getting a massive girl crush on all of them. Lol. I haven't felt this way since the Spice Girls. But it's nice to know that I can like these girls and not hear about how one had to be dragged in a drunken stupor from some club party, or got busted with a crack pipe. Or flashing their boobs or underwear in a slutty outfit.

Word of the Day: Niminy-pinimyism

Delicate or Effeminate. A synonym of namby pamby

Ack.

So I relapsed. >.< My internet crapped out for a few days but after that I've been caught up in Final Fantasy Land. I swear I'm only a hard core gamer once a year or so, if that. It will pass. FF 12 is awesome and amazing, but the one thing I don't like about it is the fact that you spend a LOT of time leveling up. Which works out in a way, because fighting monsters is 95% of your income comes from and leveling up = badass new weapons and armor.

Anyway, lots of things happened since I last posted, the biggest one being THE CIRCUS!! Daddy scored us some kick ass tickets to Ringling Brothers Circus and it was awesome. The ringleader was this super hot magician who made an elephant disappear. Now, I know magic isn't real, but how in the hell did he do that?! Seriously, he stuck an elephant in a cage and threw a curtain up for like, ten seconds and the elephant was gone. WHERE DO YOU PUT AN ELEPHANT IN TEN SECONDS?!

And another thought provoking question: Why are all the awesome acrobats asian? Seriously, there was an entire troupe of them flipping and jumping on moving platforms in the air. I think it might be the generations of ninja genes passed down from one asian to the next. They were awesome.

But the tigers were the best. I mean, I've seen tigers in a zoo before, but never this close. And I was watching them jump around in a cage when it hit me: I'm seeing a REAL LIVE TIGER. THIS IS NOT ON TV. THIS IS NOT A PICTURE. THIS IS A REAL TIGER. Which you might be saying "Uh, Duh. Of course they're real tigers, Ash. Airhead." But I'm so used to seeing tigers on tv that it took me a moment to realize that they were real.

That was Sunday. Monday I went over to Katie's house and made homemade banana nutella crepes. Oh man, they were probably the most delicious thing I have ever put into my mouth. I'm pretty new to the taste-bud orgasm that is Nutella so these crepes were extra bad ass.

Seriously, I can't get over Nutella. It tastes exactly like the inside of a Fererro Rocher, which wins the Biggest BAMF Confectionery EVER award. I'm constantly sneaking to the pantry and swiping a few finger-fulls of the stuff. OMG.

I love cooking with Katie because she knows what she's doing for one, and she completely takes over so I don't screw anything up. We were using a giant frying pan to cook the first three crepes, which didn't come out that well until Katie finally decided to use a smaller frying pan. Apparently she is incapable of eating an ugly crepe. They must all be pretty bitches. So we found this tiny little skillet with rounded edges and it worked like a charm. And no wonder: When Katie's mom came home she informed us that it was, in fact, a crepe pan.

So for the past week or so I've been tearing my room apart looking for my school transcript which I SWEAR I PUT IN MY DRAWER with all my other important documents. I SWEAR. I REMEMBER putting it there, but apparently I was taking hard core drugs because the transcript was not there. Cue complete and total freak out because it takes forever for Vista Ridge to send a transcript and by that time it might be too late to enroll. Finally yesterday I went downstairs and causally asked my dad if he'd seen it and I watched him undo a weeks worth of searching in three seconds by pulling out my transcript out of thin air like that super hot magician ringleader. I was afraid of asking him all week in case I really did lose it because I can't handle my freak outs and Daddy's freak outs. Mainly because Daddy's freak outs include lots of yelling and cussing and general annoyance.

So today Tyler and I went to State University and dropped off my application, my transcript and my SAT scores. Oh man, is a load of my chest. College is ACTUALLY GOING TO HAPPEN. I'M SO EXCITED. Now I can stop feeling like such a worthless pathetic loser and my self esteem can pull itself back from the dumps. As soon as my income check comes in and I go CLOTHES SHOPPING!!!

So I can pretty much thank Tyler for my education right now.

THANK YOU TYLER WILLIS. YOU SAVED MY ASS.

Quote of the Day: I learned three important things in college - to use a library, to memorize quickly and visually, to drop asleep at any time given a horizontal surface and fifteen minutes. ~Agnes DeMille, Dance to the Piper, 1952

This is a quote that I'm sure to appreciate in the next year.

Five Favorite . . . .

Love songs! I stole this idea from Tyler, who has been planning his version since Valentines Day and has yet to actually post it. Typical . . . Anyway, it was super hard to pick just five of my favorites, so there might be a part two coming your way in the future. I like my love songs generally angst and mush free and a little quirky. Sometimes Old Fashioned. It's hard to beat Nat King Cole's L-O-V-E. So here are mine. They aren't in any particular order of favorite to least favorite or anything like that. If you haven't heard them before I encourage you to look them up on Youtube.

1. Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
I must say that I love the lead man for Death Cab for Cutie (The Postal Service is his solo project) because his lyrics are a little strange but definitely encapsulates the feeling of the song. The tone of this song is warm and sweet without overdoing it. My favorite lyrics are:

I am thinking it's a sign that the freckles
In our eyes are mirror images and when
We kiss they're perfectly aligned
And I have to speculate that God himself
Did make us into corresponding shapes like
Puzzle pieces from the clay

Of course, part of the appeal for romantic love is finding somebody that you fit together with seamlessly. The lyrics describe this in a very literal, non cliche way that I love.

2.Better Together by Jack Johnson
I have to admit: This is the song that I picture for myself in my future. Jack Johnson writes very laid back music and most of the time it's just his voice and an acoustic guitar. But this song is about what I want in a husband: a companion. A best friend. Somebody that I want to spend most of my time with. My favorite lyrics come near the beginning of the song.

our dreams, and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs
with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer
at least for most of the questions in my heart, like
Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together

3. I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face by Rex Harrison
This is from the movie My Fair Lady, but I prefer the original Broadway version as opposed to the movie version. But anyway, I love this song so much because it's written from the point of view of a very prickly man who is a bit of an asshole and doesn't really know how to word his feelings. He pisses off the woman in his life and she leaves him. This song is sung at the very end of the movie and it's a slow realization, while he argues with himself, of how much he misses her, all the little things about her, even though she drives him crazy. He never actually says "I love her" in the song, but you don't doubt it for a second. My favorite part:

But I'm so used to hear her say
"Good morning" ev'ry day.
Her joys, her woes,
Her highs, her lows,
Are second nature to me now;
Like breathing out and breathing in.
I'm very grateful she's a woman
And so easy to forget;
Rather like a habit
One can always break-
And yet,
I've grown accustomed to the trace
Of something in the air;
Accustomed to her face.

5. Ordinary People by John Legend
This song is amazing because it is a realistic love song. What absolutely kills me about love is that most people seem to think that once you fall in love with someone you're destined to be happy forever with them. They think the honeymoon period lasts fifty years. It doesn't. And when it doesn't people give up and think that the relationship has run it's course.

But this song is about how he loves his wife or girlfriend or whatever, despite the fact that they fight and yell and sometimes make each other miserable. That he wants to work through all the hard times because she is worth it and their relationship is worth it. I could quote the whole song but I'll try to restrain myself.

Girl I'm in love with you,
But this ain't the honeymoon.
We're past the infatuation phase
Right in the thick of love
At times we get sick of love
It seems like we argue everyday

I hang up you call
We rise and we fall
And we feel like just walking away
As our love advances
We take second chances
Though it's not a fantasy
I still want you to stay

I love the chorus best of all.

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go.
We're just ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow.

I love that. It's so simple: we're just ordinary people. Normal people. We're not perfect, our relationship is not perfect. Sometimes we have no idea what we're doing, but if we slow down we'll make it through. Perfect relationship advice.

5.FNT by Semisonic.
FNT stands for Fascinating New Thing and this song is exactly what a guy should be telling a girl, in my opinion. The Chorus:

I'm surprised that you've never been told before
That you're lovely
And you're perfect
And that somebody wants you
I'm surprised that you've never been told before
That you're priceless
Yeah, you're precious
Even when you are not new

That last line is awesome because it's somebody telling a girl that even after the newness wears off she'll still be amazing to him. My other favorite line:

Fascinating new thing,
Don't betray them by becoming familiar.

That means to me, that the guy wants me to be my weird, quirky, nerdy self because that's what he finds so fascinating. I am unique. Gah! What girl wouldn't want to hear that?!

Out of all of these songs if you only have the time to look up one, I do recommend Ordinary People. I love all of them, but that song is so powerful even though most of the song is just John and a piano.

Word of the Day: Nefarious

extremely wicked or villainous

It's such a cheesy word, but I love it. Nefarious is the guy driving a train and twisting his mustache while a girl lies helpless and tied to the tracks. Classic.

Update

So around four in the afternoon we got a phone call from Kerri, a mom at the elementary school (and also one of the sweetest, most wonderfully classy people in existence and a woman I damn near idolize) told us that THE DAIRY QUEEN BLIZZARD TRUCK is in town. Yes, THAT DAIRY QUEEN BLIZZARD TRUCK. From the commercials? The only one in the entire USA?!

Yeah, I totally hit that. I got a delicious, FREE oreo blizzard. It was amazing. What the Blizzard truck was doing in tiny Saint Albans, I have no idea. It's next stop is Lexington, and just one of their subdivisions could probably eat Saint Albans for a midnight snack or something.

But yeah. Free ice cream is always a reason to celebrate. :)

I'm a Bad Person!

So I went two days without posting, but it's not my fault, honestly! It's all Katie's fault because she let me borrow Final Fantasy 12! (FYI Dan, this is a video game). I've been playing it for two days straight until I'm too tired to open my eyes and then I stumble onto bed.

Honestly, even though I love video games I'm not much of a gamer. I do not usually get this way. But the game . . .is just too much to resist. I didn't begin it with high expectations just because I hadn't really heard anything about it. Nothing bad but nothing really good either. It's not that talked about compared to seven and eight and ten.

BUT I LOVE THIS GAME. The characters are awesome. Even Vaan, who is probably the final fantasy character with the least brain cells, is fairly tolerable. But this game doesn't have a single, super annoying perfect sweet girl in it. There are no Kairi's or Aeriths or Rinoas in this game. The girls in here are badass and Penelo is adorable without overdoing it.

And it's got Balthier. A super hot gentleman sky pirate who is the absolute shit. I love this guy. I love this guy more than I love Zell or Reno and that is a lot of love. And he's got the most awesome british voice.

And the cities! They're so gorgeous, there are tons of places to explore and it's so detailed and involved. . . .

But you guys have probably never played the game and have no earthly idea what I'm talking about so I'll stop gushing. But I seriously can not stop playing this game.

Word of the Day: Quiddities

the quality that makes a thing what it is; the essential nature of a thing.

or

a trifling nicety of subtle distinction, as in argument.

I still have no idea what that second definition means, but Balthier said it in the game and I was totally looking the word up on my ipod in the middle of battle because it's such an awesome word.

Pure Imagination

So today I got ran some errands with Katie, including accompanying her to her drug test for K-mart and heading all the way up the mountain to the GameStop to sell her game cube only to find out that they wouldn't accept it because she had left the controller at her house. She's selling it because at a yard sale last week she found a perfectly working, almost new Wii for FORTY FIVE DOLLARS. Damn it, some people just have all the luck, you know.

Anyway, she let me borrow her Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original version, not that Johnny Depp creepy remake) and John and I watched it. I hadn't seen it in such and long time and I forgot how AWESOMELY AMAZING IT IS. And most because Wonka is one of my favorite types of characters. You know, the loony ones, the ones you have no idea what to expect from because they'll say or do anything. The tricksters. The kind of people who act random and insane and a bit idiotic but you know they're secret geniuses who don't miss a thing.

Oh, and my income tax return thingy is back in! I think we're picking it up tomorrow. I'm excited. I'm going to go clothes shopping. I haven't gone shopping properly in I don't know how long. I hate that. I used to get new clothes at the beginning of the school year. Now I don't have anyone to take me shopping! Oh Dan, if only you were here . . .

But yeah. I'm thinking this hugely awesome (and awesomely huge) Goodwill in Charleston for some jeans and Khols for the rest. I might need a new swim suit but those cost so much money! I hate how they charge you freaking twenty or more PER PIECE. That's highway robbery. It's a load of shit. We should protest. I'm going to research sales and stuff after I'm done writing this.

Quote of the Day:

"We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of the dreams."

Willy Wonka quoted this randomly in the movie (he likes to do that, quote random things) It's actually the first lines of a poem called Ode, by Arthur O'Shaughnessy. It's a very awesome poem. I used to have the first stanza memorized. You should check it out, Tyler, if you haven't already. Good stuff.

Rawr

. . .Cause I can't think of a title. Anyway, today was, you guessed it, yard work day! I mowed one of the side yards, which is a little bit bigger than most people's backyards. *kisses arm muscles* Welcome to the gun show!

Anyway, it's been one week since we went the Charleston Main Library of Awesomeness and I'm done with all my books. Before you freak out and say "OMG Ash, how can you read fifteen books in one week. YOU MUST HAVE SUPER POWERS" I didn't read them all. I read about ten of them. But the other five . . .bleh. They did not deliver. But I need to go back. Like, soon. Maybe Friday.

So I'm starting to get addicted to the show Modern Family. It is hilarious. And it's so . . .realistic. That's the core reason for the funny. It really is a modern day family. I love all the characters but I have serious love for the gay couple. They are portrayed as sweet and funny and not stereotypical. I mean, gay is not a personality type, and it really kills me to see gay guys portrayed as the same type of guy over and over again. But these two have a sweet, realistic relationship and I just love watching them interact with the rest of the family.

Sheesh. You know I never used to watch TV until Daddy got me hooked on House the summer after my sophomore year. Now I into House, NCIS, The Mentalist, the Big Bang Theory and now Modern Family. I've turned into a tv whore! And yet I still find time to read ten books in seven days!

You know what this means? It means I have no life. That would almost depress me, but I'm too busy watching TV to notice. XP

Oh, and does anybody know how to insert pics into a blog post? Does Copy and Paste work?

Because I can't find a word that tickles my current fancy, here is a Quote of the Day:

Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today. ~Herman Wouk

I would tell you how much of Daddy's income taxes are imaginative fiction, but this is a public blog and I don't want him to get arrested. ^.^

My Backyard is a Jungle

*Edit. Last night Gin (my laptop) was being an asshat and didn't connect to the internet out of sheer spite so this is actually yesterday's post. I'll put up another one later on tonight.

Today I experienced the joys of yard work. We chainsawed several giant tree limbs that fell from a sycamore in the backyard,I mowed the front lawn and Daddy weed-eated around the house. It's a tiny dent in the total yard work that needs to be done, but the front yard looks great. I don't really mind the up coming mowing of the rest of the property cause, seriously, every venture into the yard is like going on a hunt for wild pokemon. I'm almost expecting a rattata or caterpie to leap out at me.

I'd go on and on about how there is a new House episode THANK GOD AND IT WAS AMAZING AS HOUSE ALWAYS IS, and Jim Parsons on The Big Bang Theory is probably the most adorable man in existence but I'm pretty tired and I got to wake up early tomorrow to read to John's class. Maybe I can sit next to Cynthia again!

Word of the Day: Kumquat

It's a fruit. It's apparently tasty but I've never had one. But it's an awesome word. There should be a band named after them.

Late Night Last Night

So yesterday my dad invited this friend his, Diane, who is a mom at the elementary school, over for a cookout. Now, Diane is nice, and funny, and she can take a good joke on herself, but that's not why I was happy to have her over. I was happy because Diane is the only other person in the entire universe who Daddy teases as much as he teases me. And for the afternoon I got to sit back and watch Daddy rag her like you wouldn't believe. Of course, Diane can rag Daddy just as hard, so it was pure entertainment. And for once the focus was not on me. I flew under the radar.

Well, until Tyler showed up. He invited me over to make beer bread (which, to my surprise, does not taste like beer and isn't alcoholic) and when he stopped by for a hot dog and to pick me up my Dad starts going on about how low cut my shirt was and did I wear that for Tyler? My shirt was not low cut, for your information. Hell, he PICKED THIS SHIRT OUT AT KMART. He LIKES this shirt. I could have killed him. It's not easy to embarrass me but count on Daddy to manage it. Of course, Tyler loves to tease me almost as much as Daddy does, so they BOTH started ragging on me and Diane sat back, grateful no doubt, for getting a break.

Well Tyler and I blew that joint before I got arrested for domestic abuse on my father and went on the hunt for self rising flour. Tyler, in his everlasting wisdom, forgot about self rising flour in his first batch of beer bread and thus ended up with more of a beer cracker.

Then we headed to his apartment to make the beer bread. Since Tyler reads this blog I will skip over the abhorrent state of his apartment, and also the making of the beer bread, which is easy and boring.

The beer bread turned out pretty well. We kicked back on his tiny back porch and ate it. His roommate Jeremy locked out of the apartment, Tyler mooned him, we watched Anchorman until around ten. All in all a good evening.

Oh, and my little brother collects bottle caps. Can anyone explain this? Like, what is the appeal in bottle caps? He's got an entire tupperware tub of them and God help you if you touch it. WTF? Can't he collect something cool, like rocks or stamps or something? What can you do with fifty Bud Ice bottle caps?

Word of the Day: Schematics

"I’ve got elixirs and schematics. I don’t even know what schematics are but I want them back there because I know schematics belong in labs." - Dane Cook.

Let me tell you, you are one cool dude of you have schematics. Spies and super cool art thieves have schematics. You are in good company.

Music Spree

This morning I woke up and had the strange and sudden craving for Final Fantasy music. So I got on youtube and went to town. There are some seriously awesome orchestra versions of final fantasy soundtracks, including a rendition of Aerith's theme that'll make you cry (or so I heard).

And while I do think Aerith's theme is probably one of the most beautiful instrumental songs I've ever heard, I have to say that Ff8's music is my absolute favorite. I don't know if it's because of the nostalgia or that FF8 was my first final fantasy game or if the music is just more epic. Maybe it's a mix of all three. It's hard to say which one is my favorite, but I especially love Breezy, Fisherman's Horizon, the Balamb garden theme, and Ami. And yeah, I know, that's a lot of favorites.

Also I downloaded Bill Cosby's Himself. If you have never seen or heard that comedy album then you need to get your head out from under whatever rock you've been living in and haul your happy ass to a blockbuster or on netflicks. Stat. My God, there is no other comedy album that is as funny, not even blue collar comedy, not even Dane Cook. And I love both of them. Bill Cosby says, like, two cuss words the whole two hours but you will not be able to breathe until the movie is over.

Anyway, today Daddy and I ran errands today at Lowes. I want a bansai tree. But I don't want a bansai tree that is also a cedar tree. I mean, sheesh, don't they come in any other kind? Then we went to Wal Mart and I stocked up on awesome food. Wal Mart may treat their employers and the little companies like shit, but man, at the end of the day you just can't beat them. They have EVERYTHING. THEY HAVE SNAPPLE POMEGRANATE RASPBERRY TEA. And it is TASTY. They also have those stoffer's flatbread sandwiches. I got about fifty of those. Yum. So I am appeased.

For now.

Word of the Day: Quixotic
extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical, or impracticable.

or

impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.

Named after Don Quixote. ^.^ If you don't know who that is, go ahead and give yourself a nice smack upside the head. Good. Now go Google that shit.

Now if this isn't a world class Tamaki word, then I don't know what is. Maybe there should be a Japanese version - Tamaxotic.

And There Was Rain . .

The sky wore a veil of gold and green, at night it was the bright of the moon with me. Time just floating away.

Ha, those are lyrics to a Coldplay song called Rainy Day that, besides being totally awesome, are very befitting of today. Though it's not as much rain as it is torrential downpour. I stayed in bed this morning reading. ^.^ I coudn't decide which awesome book to start first, so I started three of them at the same time. Last night John spend the evening at his mother's house and I had six glorious hours to myself while Daddy went to work. I finished one book before he got home and it was awesome!

Anyway, today is rainy and cold, but I don't mind because I haven't heard a thunderstorm in so long. But it also means today nothing happened. So, for the sake of boredom, I'll share a few of my favorite quotes.

Because, if you don't know by now, I'm a little obsessed with quotes. I loves me some quotes.

Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
This is the type of quote I read and think, damn it, why didn't I think of that?!

Calamity, n. A more than commonly plain and unmistakable reminder that the affairs of this life are not of our own ordering.

Friends can be said to "fall in like" with as profound a thud as romantic partners fall in love. ~Letty Cottin Pogrebin
I absolutely love this quote because it's so true. Soul mates and kindred spirits are so not just for romance.

Freaks are the much needed escape from the humdrum. They are poetry. ~Albert Perry


Are you ready to cut off your head and place your foot on it? If so, come; Love awaits you! Love is not grown in a garden, nor sold in the marketplace; whether you are a king or a servant, the price is your head, and nothing less. Yes, the cost of the elixir of love is your head! Do you hesitate? 0 miser, It is cheap at that price!"

And finally, this poem. I found it on a bookmark. ^.^

"Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow--
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream." Edgar Allen Poe


Word of the Day: Badinage and Persiflage

They both mean light and witty banter. I found them in the book I was reading last night and bam! It was love at first sight. Come on, say them. How could you not like them?

Paradise Thy Name Is . . .

The Charleston Main Library! So today Katie, my friend since seventh grade, and I went to the library today because I've never been and I've plowed my way through the entire young adult section, the fantasy section, and half the adult fiction section at my library.

Holy crap, you guys. This library is amazing. It's huge and old looking, with big stone columns and looks basically how a library is supposed to look. It has FOUR FLOORS OF BOOKS. I WAS SO EXCITED. I have this giant back list of books that I've been meaning to read and this place had a lot of them. The fact that their ac was broke and the crazy hippie librarian guy at the front desk kept playing this GOD AWFUL bluegrass on the overhead speakers could not dampen my bookgasm. . . .maybe dampen is not the best choice of words, but you get my meaning.

I walked out of there with about fifteen books. I would have gotten more if Katie hadn't practically dragged me out by my hair to go pay the parking meter so we wouldn't get towed. Note to self: city parking is a BITCH.

Getting there was a mini adventure. Before we left Saint Albans, we ran by Krogers to grab some milk and eggs for Katie's mom and on the way to her house some stupid blonde girl in a giant dodge truck swerved out in front of us. Freaking Teenagers, get off the damn cellphone AND LOOK WHERE THE HELL YOU ARE GOING.

Anyway, the milk busted all over one of the floor mats in the back seat and we had to scrub the backseat out before we could leave or else the car would smell like spoiled milk in a few days. Katie is very ocd about her cleaning so she scrubbed the mat and the car about five times.

We drove to Charleston, which is only about twenty minutes away and literally across the river, using the navigator and no matter what route we took, there was always some kind of freaking road construction to screw us up. And the navigator got very pissy. If Katie didn't have it on mute, I would have expected to hear some kind of version of "I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that." Creeeepy.

But we finally found the library almost an hour later and had fun trying to find parking. But man, was it worth it.

I'm also very excited because I looked out over the river today and saw that the mountains across the Kanawha WERE GREEN. I HAVE GREEN MOUNTAINS AGAIN! Seriously, West Virginia in the winter is the most depressing sight I have ever seen. Those Cedar trees in Texas might have given me allergy hell, but at least Leander was green all year round. But here it's been a solid five months of being surrounded by Tim Burton skeleton trees. It sucks.

What's strange is that it's only been warm for about three or four weeks, and yet Winter seems months away, in the far distant past. I think that is where winter should stay for the rest of my life. It's been in the high eighties all week long and I could not be happier.

Daddy could. He could be much happier. He has shifted from bitching about how sick he is of being cold all the time to how it's too hot outside. I don't think he's happy unless he's complaining about something. I think complaining keeps him from grabbing a shotgun and shooting ditsy teen girls who TALK ON CELLPHONES WHILE DRIVING THEIR DADDY'S MONSTER TRUCKS AND NOT PAYING ATTENTION. Gah. I'll be leaving the ranks of teen in about two months and I couldn't be happier.

Word of the Day: Bombastic

adjective
(of speech, writing, etc.) high-sounding; high-flown; inflated; pretentious.

In another words, A Percy Weasley Word. This is another word where the definition doesn't fit it. Bombastic should be another world for awesomesauce, or epic. Because it is an awesomesaucely, epic word.

I'm Planning A Kidnapping.

So every Tuesday I read to Little John's first grade class and over the past few weeks I have come to the realization that no where on this earth exists a seven year old girl who is as cute and adorable and sweet as John's friend Cynthia.

Oh my God. Words cannot express how much I love this little girl. She's a lot like me at that age, only cuter and sweeter and not painfully shy. She sat next to me at lunch and we talked the entire time about pets and tattoos and books and other stupid, little stuff and I loved every minute of it.

I want a Cynthia. Like, I think eventually I can overcome my huge fear of sex and childbirth if it gives me a Cynthia. She is that awesome.

I really love reading to the kids every Tuesday if only because I've just realized how much I missed elementary school. Man did we have it made. And every time I go to Central Elementary I'm reminded of playing Pokemon with Laurie and field days, and looking for fossils on the rocks and sneaking caterpillars into the classrooms.

Good times. Which reminds me: I've been meaning to break into C.C. Mason elementary school playground for, like, the past three years. I'm going to do it this summer if it kills me. Up for some breaking and entering this summer, Laurie?

Word of the Day:fo·lie à deux
n. A condition in which symptoms of a mental disorder, such as the same delusional beliefs or ideas, occur simultaneously in two individuals who share a close relationship or association.

This is also the name of a Fall Out Boy album. ^.^

My Pastor is a Ninja

This morning an Easter miracle happened: we arrived at church ON TIME. This has NEVER HAPPENED in the two years that I've been going to this church with Daddy. Not once. Even though the church is literally five minutes away. No matter how early Daddy seems to get up (which is never earlier than nine thirty) we always manage to slink into church in the middle of the announcements or the first song, with Daddy stressing and freaking the whole five minute trip there.

But not this morning, Halleluia. I can't tell you how nice it was to walk into church and not have every pair of eyes on us.

  But seriously, Pastor Joel has some serious ninja skills. The sermon winds down, we sing one last song, and right as everyone stands up to leave, BAM! He is gone. He manages this in a time window of less than two minutes, with people in the front row making a beeline towards him the moment the song is over. Personally I think he has a trap door and a series of secret tunnels that pop up at all the exits and maybe in his office.

Anyway I woke up this morning to a pretty box of Ferraro Rochers and I'm going to try real hard to make them last more than a day, but I don't have high expectations. I swear the gold foils has traces of crack that seeps into the chocolate. You cannot eat just one without inhaling the rest of them.


Spiffy Word of the Day: Miasma

A dangerous, foreboding, deathlike atmosphere or influence

         I love how Miasma, which is such a pretty word and sounds like cheesy light show or something, means something deadly and awful. There's a metaphor in that somewhere if you squint.