"Do you work here?" "No." "Oh, well there's a reindeer stuck in the tree."

Lots more to scrapbook. Really need to post more. I'll attempt to go in order.

Superwoman has officially dubbed me as our branch's Staff Association Liaison.

I can never spell that word right, had to Google it.

If you don't work at my library system, Staff Association is basically a group of people from all over the system who work together to promote comradery amongst staff. We host events, send out cards, and all that. We haven't done it for years but then one of my comrades brought it back - making her president.

That's what happens when you want things to happen, you get put in charge. Isn't it lovely?

She even bribed us youngsters with food so we would join.

By youngsters I mean myself and the New Guy.

Everyone else at my branch that's my age has bailed.

But that's another story.

Anyway, so we've been having meetings and they're super fun and also planning a lot of fun stuff. They had a Staff Association picnic at the park - which I missed, though I did text The New Guy to take pictures if they attempted anything athletic.

You've gotta know my people, it would be hilarious. Especially if it were something like volleyball or kickball. Apparently they went with frisbee cause anyone can play that.

Next up is the Holiday Breakfast, where everyone brings food - I know, I'll have to practice beforehand so I don't kill anyone - and there are raffles and all that. After that in the spring we're thinking bowling and wine tasting in the summer.

Should be fun. In the meantime I'm on the cheeseball committee.

Basically we make cheeseballs for the holiday breakfast and then if people want to order any of their own we will supply them.

Remember how I can't cook?

But I was promised there would be wine so I'm there. As long as I don't have to actually cook anything, I think I'm capable of mixing cheese with nuts or whatever it is that goes into cheeseballs - my family makes them all the time but I've never been involved in the process.

Better not mention it to them, then they'd expect me to start making them. Especially since there's usually a large number of people who order them so I'd be a pro by the end of it.

Anyway, I'm excited that Staff Association is back. I bugged Superwoman for years about staff morale and starting something similar. Now I'm just glad I'm not in charge.

Moving on.

Guess what season it is!!

Fall!!

Which means I get both ice hockey and football!

And, I get to see them both in person this upcoming weekend!

That was me all summer, BTW.

For ice hockey our first official game of the season is on Friday and then I'm going with the Cool Aunt to the Husker game on Saturday!

Super excited, we used to go to the Kansas game but since we switched conferences I haven't been to one in person. The away games are so far away now and the home ones sell out in like 10 minutes.

As for ice hockey, we actually hosted two different pre-season games at our ice box, and in both games we've come from behind to win.

Which is good for the team but bad for my heart.

The best thing about the first game was that season ticket holders got to go early and meet the players and tour the locker room so I got them to sign a bunch of stuff. Since the boyfriend was out of town I took Smo and it was awesome. We went through the signing line a couple of times, cause we're awesome like that. I took a ton of pictures and we won IN OVERTIME so it was extra awesome.

Plus Smo got a sweatshirt with a beer koozie and bottle opener in it.



Enough said.

Here are some of my favorite pics:



Up close and personal with the ice, yet far enough away to avoid me falling on my face.



Smo with the zamboni.

College flashback - Professor Hargin-Smith: "What's a zamboni? Pasta?"



Gotta have the suit jackets...



This guy is a stud. Gonna be high scorer all season, I'm calling it now.







Love these guys.



Ludvig for the win!

The second game the boyfriend was also gone so I took the eldest member of P Squared. Both members are huge hockey fans and the eldest is soon moving to Vegas for a job so I figured it'd be good to jam before she officially left us. More reasons to go back to Vegas.

Again we came from behind to win but this time it was in the third period.





I love our section, we are loud and obnoxious. There are two guys who sit behind us and commentate and they're hilarious. Plus the guys around me yell at anyone who stands up during the game - you're supposed to remain seated when the puck is in play so people can see and also so you don't get hit with flying pucks - but since they yell at them it means I don't have to so it's nice.

Next up to scrapbook are some work adventures. I mean actual adventures as I ventured out into the wild.

Literally.

A middle school and a zoo, both are extremely wild places.

First was the middle school. I got to jam with Sam - who needs a nickname, we had like 10 classes together for grad school plus now she works at a branch in my system - at a middle school over their lunch period and talk about books. It was fun.

Of course the girls are all into Fault in Our Stars and other John Green books, and then the boys are more into fantasy like Warriors and such. But there was some crossover. We ended the session with some Harry Potter trivia and my god they were shouting the answers before I could even think of them in my head.

Do you know how many pieces Ron tore up the letter from Percy into?

They did.

It was eight if you were curious.

The next day it was fun at the zoo with Girlscout. The zoo hosted a thing for area school's and lots of businesses (including us) had booths there to promote ourselves and our services. We had stuff for the kids to make bookmarks and it was crazy busy. We're thinking a good 350 kids in under 3 hours.

It was swamped, but lots of fun. Once we got into the rhythm that is. Though for both of us, our favorite part was when a parent came up to us and asked if we worked at the zoo.

We were like no.

And she was like, Oh, well there's a reindeer stuck in a tree.

That's something you don't see very often, however we were informed by a zookeeper - who also happens to be married to another one of our comrades (remember Big Brother?) - that it is shedding it's fur so she gave him branches to help out.

Bummer. We thought he was practicing for Christmas.

Night after that was sister's night out for Oldest Sister's birthday. We took her to the Parthenon. Lots of good food plus a bottle of wine - we were there for a few hours so it was a lot of fun. And I'd post quotes but most of which are inappropriate.

I'll let you ask my nephew yourself how he describes his older sister's music.

Best. Bubby. Line. Ever.

Then, yesterday was the Husker game against Miami.

Another one that was bad for my heart - for the first half at least. While I'm usually very proud of our fans for being nice people and cheering for both teams as they leave the field, I feel like the booing of Miami this time was warranted. There were quite a few scuffles going on during the game, I'm just glad Gregory made it off the field without being injured over something stupid.

And Fear Ameer man, that guy's definitely going pro. I don't know what we'd do without him. And Bell, he was great, but he always is. Too bad Westercamp didn't have any big plays, that guy has been on fire so far this season. I'm bummed Turner is out for the season - he was one of my favorites - but he'll be back next year, hopefully. Armstrong is impressive, you can tell he worked a lot in the off season.

I'll stop, I know you don't care.

On to the music:

Dear Future Husband - Meghan Trainor


Yes I bought her EP the day it came out. This is my second favorite behind All About That Bass. Total throwback style.

Here it is live, she's not bad.



I can't say the same for the cameraman.


It Must Be Love - Christina Grimmie


Totally underrated single. Love it. Not just cause it's her and the Voice comes back tomorrow...

Try Me On - Karmin


Still in love with these guys, even moreso after seeing them live.


And that's all I got.

The boyfriend gets back from the west coast tonight and I get to see him tomorrow, woohoo! Only been gone for like two weeks...and then he's leaving again so I'm taking Queen of the Known Universe to the first hockey game.

Apparently it's gotta be the whole date experience. Food and a t-shirt. Should be fun.

Hard to be a boy in a cabin named Sioux - Camp J 2014 Highlights

And now, the post you’ve all been waiting for. Or at least I have since it's the one I look forward to every year.

First here are the previous years:

2011 Highlights - Jansen
2012 Highlights - Eh, they signed a waiver
2013 Highlights - Now Rhonda has no Honda

Now on to...

Camp J 2014 Highlights - Hard to be a boy in a cabin named Sioux

Thursday

-Tent Setup
:: After working Thursday morning I headed out to the camp site in the afternoon. Jim arrived soon after. After we had unloaded the trailer - with much help from others there - we went to set up our tents. This is an adventure in itself every year. And you would think after doing it for at least 10 years we would have it down, but not so much. Though technically he did just get a new tent like last year. This year there were spider webs everywhere so I was super nervous I was gonna walk into one (yes I'm a farm girl but that doesn't mean I like bugs) but really the only bugs we encountered the whole weekend were wasps, and we have spray for that. Oh and hornets, apparently there were angry hornets in Mary Lee. Glad I missed out on that one. Anyway, 2 hours later after a few failed attempts and a lot of screaming the tents were up and running and it was time for food. Cantrell made us burgers - they were good stuff - and just when we thought Smo was lost she turned up.

-Oooo vs Ewww
:: For those of you who don't know, Smo was my high school roommate - well, one of the many. I talked her into going to camp a few months ago and - after registering on time, woohoo! - she made it this year. Since she was new she went with us on a cabin tour - or as we call it "Mattress Count". The count exists because the one year when we didn't count them we were short and had to drag extras from Mary Lee to Mohican which was all the way at the other end. Here, here's a map, courtesy of Michael's computer skills.




Similar to last year, we had more boys than girls so we had the same arrangement, however this year we did have a cabin of girls on the very edge of the boys side (Pawnee). We chose to put the 3rd grade girls in this one because there is a difference between the 8th grade girls "oooo" at boys and the 3rd grade girls "ewww" at boys. And if they're "ewww"ing them then we don't have to worry about them venturing past their cabin into boy territory.

-The Butter Aisle
:: Every year Jim and I find ourselves going to Walmart Thursday night to get things we've forgotten. This year his list was longer than mine and included things like soap and sheets. I made fun of this then three days later found myself running to Walmart because I forgot extra shorts. They were in the dryer, woops. To be fair I did remember pants...but you don't wear pants in 100 degree weather. But whatever, he got his forgotten stuff and I got my skit supplies and then we were like, let's get ice cream and chocolate syrup! Cause that's what we do on Thursdays before the kids get there. We found the ice cream right away but got lost finding syrup so we asked an employee. Then of course she had no idea so she radioed and they told us it was in the "butter aisle." Well, where the crap is that? Butter is not in an aisle it's on an end in the refrigerated section. Whatever, so we found the "butter aisle" and there was no syrup in sight. But you know what WAS in the butter aisle? LIQUOR. Lots and lots of liquor. So we're thinking either employees really have no idea where anything is in that store or they were watching us on camera wandering around going "where the crap is the butter aisle?" and laughing. Or maybe we looked stressed and they thought we needed to visit the "butter aisle." Anyway, every Walmart trip after that we kept finding excuses to go visit the "butter aisle." Though we didn't get anything from it because that's what caused a lot of drama last year. Not by us, but with a teen. Read last year's highlights.

-Injury
:: So I don't know what happened but somehow in the middle of the night I did something to my back. I don't know if I slept on it wrong or reached too far for something or what, but every time I rolled over I was in pain. This pain carried on throughout the weekend so much so that it hurt to laugh. Which explains me laughing and then doubling over in pain multiple times. Thankfully Jim had drugs in his medkit so I spent most of camp on Bayer because it seemed to work the best. It's turning into yet another camp tradition - me being injured in some way or another. I get bit up by bugs and my feet swells up, I get blisters, etc. something always happens. I should just learn to expect it.


Friday

-French Toast
:: There are many camp traditions. Cantrell's french toast is one of them. Along with flour tag, lasagna assembly lines, Apples to Apples, and rootbeer floats. Though you'll be proud that I skipped out on that last one keeping my "no more pop" experiment alive. I was asked if it was a permanent thing or if it would be ending soon. Truth is I'm not sure. I just wanna see how long I can make it last. But anyway, the french toast was awesome and it woke us up for what happened next.

-Registration
:: This is always an adventure. I had it set up the night before so that morning it went pretty smoothly. Girls stuff on one table, boys on the other. Set up right by the door so they grab their lanyard and schedule, then drop off any medications for the nurse before heading to their cabin where their counselor was waiting. Usually I have Oldest Sister to help me out but she was otherwise engaged at a family reunion. Not mine, hers. If that makes sense. However, this year both other siblings made an appearance. My brother with his daughter who was up to her 4th year of camp and his son who was there for his first year. Then Second Sister brought her oldest son who was also there for the first time. To be fair I did warn their counselor in advance that when they're together they can be rowdy, but they actually weren't so bad. Minus the fact that one of them wore the same clothes the entire weekend and the other one I'm pretty sure never put on sunscreen. But they both survived and so did the camp, mostly unscathed.

-"I went outside once, it was awful." 


::Before I go any further I should mention that it was about 100 degrees on both Friday and Saturday. Thankfully myself and the music crew were inside in the air conditioning and rarely ventured out. When we did it was horrible. But the kids didn't seem to notice because to compensate for the heat we just increased their swimming time. Actually it was so cold in the mess hall that Smo and I ended up putting on sweatshirts. Which confused everyone as they walked in.

-Skits Day One
:: Each group seemed to be content with their skit, which was a big relief after the hell that was last year, the only one with problems was me and that's because of the whole back injury thing. Which meant I used Smo as my demonstrator. It was amusing so I called it initiation but she seemed to handle it well.

-Hole in the bucket
:: The boys seem to really enjoy when we sing There's a Hole in the Bucket at campfire. We've figured out that it's because it's really the only time they get to win an argument. But as patient women we said we'd let them have their small victory while secretly plotting to Google some sort of rebuttal when we returned from camp. All I can say is that it's top secret and they better be ready next year.

-Night patrol headlamps
:: Remember how I got stuck doing night patrol? Cause Phil is just so persuasive. This year I drug Smo around with me and it's dark so we came up with some interesting lighting options. I had my headlamp, which still works - huzzah - and instead of carrying around the lantern in her hand Smo decided to turn it into a decorative head ornament by strapping it on with a headband.



Very stylish I must say. We had to be sneaky this year because I was challenged. Keep in mind this year was my 19th year of camp so I've been doing this for quite some time but I've only recently picked up night patrol duty. My niece - the one who'd been at camp 4 years - told my brother, aka her dad, that the kids only pretend to sleep when I come around for night patrol. I told her (through him) that I knew that because I went to camp at that age and know all the tricks and don't stop circling until I know that they are actually asleep. Upon hearing that I knew all the tricks she vowed to come up with new tricks. Which led to Smo and I crawling and ninja rolling around their cabin, avoiding all windows and trying to find her bunk without alerting the other girls to our presence. We failed cause she's tiny and we couldn't find her, but to be fair SHE WAS ALREADY ASLEEP. So take that.

-No bug spray in enclosed spaces
:: So Smo crashed with me in my tent this year. We fit 2 mattresses in it along with all of our stuff and still had room to walk, so yay big tent! A worthy investment! Though we were outdoors and there were bugs everywhere. Smo decided to spray herself with bugspray thinking that that would keep them away. The only thing about it was she did it inside the tent with no windows open. I wasn't paying attention cause I was texting the boyfriend but suddenly I was engulfed in this wave of spray and couldn't stop coughing. My "did you spray that inside the tent?" was followed by loud laughter from Jim (who was about 5 feet away in his tent) and then us as we coughed for the next ten minutes. Needless to say she didn't do that again.Other than the frogs and the trains and the crickets and the back pain and the fog of bug spray tent life was pretty good this year.


Saturday

-Speaking of ferrets
:: No band is complete without a name. Every year we challenge ourselves to come up with a new name. Last year we were Destiny's Red-Headed Step-Child, this year we went with Speaking of Ferrets. Don't ask. All I'll say was that it came from an interesting conversation about ferrets and then stuck. Our band did excellent this year. We rocked the house for skits and worship and then dominated at campfires (though it was too hot to have them outside so they were moved into the air conditioning).

-"Sounds like a car driving through a halftime show"
:: As part of our band our lead guitarist also plays some piano. We have an electric keyboard that we bring every year complete with different settings you can play with. When working on skits he decided to find the drum setting so he could add in some rimshots after big jokes. While attempting to find it he pressed a bunch of keys and it sounded like a car drove through a halftime show. Which was wildly entertaining, though I'm sure would have been scary if you were apart of it.

-Ping Pong
:: Our un-air-conditioned chapel, where our band used to reside and where I spent the majority of my camp years, is now complete with not one but two ping pong tables. I learned I have no skill whatsoever, but that's okay because I was playing against Smo who faced a similar situation. Ping pong turned into water balloon wars which lead to our next segment...

-"Would you feel better if you threw water balloons at Michael?"
:: After being pelted over and over by water balloons that Michael had thrown at her, Smo tried to be sneaky by stealing my sweatshirt and storing a bunch in there. She failed, they saw her coming a mile away. On our way to get payback we saw a little girl who was starting to get homesick. We worked with what we had on hand - aka two water balloons - and she got Smo's revenge for her.

-Or so we thought, Smo gets thrown in pool
:: Though that didn't last long cause less than five minutes later Smo was over Michael's shoulder as he ran toward the pool. Which really was her fault cause she kept asking what the pool looked like. (It was too dark to see during our mattress count.) Thankfully she did not have any electronic devices - like I did the one time, which was not one of my favorite life moments - and she was thrown in. She stayed outside for a while afterward to dry off in the sun.

-"Hard to be a boy in a cabin named Sioux"
:: Another camp tradition is cabin cheers. Each cabin must come up with a cheer that they will perform for all of camp on Saturday night. Pyramids are popular amongst girls, along with chanting, singing, dancing, and posters. It's not a competition but if it was the 4th grade boys would have won. They had our lead guitarist play as they did a Johnny Cash-inspired song about the rough life for a boy sleeping in a cabin named Sioux. If you don't get that joke you'll make me cry inside and say "oh, for the love, scroll down to the music rec's."


Sunday

-Skits
:: Sunday morning is our closing service for kid's camp. They get up, eat some breakfast, clean camp, then we rehearse for the service by singing through the songs (which we covered during Skits and Worship during our day sessions) before the parents start to arrive at 9. We offer them breakfast - so some of the kids wait to eat - and then church starts at 10. The service was great, Pastor is always great at that, and the kids sang nice and loud. Afterwards is when we perform the skits they practiced (which is the other half of the Skits and Worship sessions) on Friday and Saturday. Needless to say they all did great. I was super proud. If I had to pick a favorite... while the 3rd grade girls did an excellent parodied version of Mary Poppins I think I would still go with the 7th and 8th graders. For the three previous years I made them sing Hee-Haw which I did away with this year because of last year's drama (see post). But I did keep up the singing tradition which was actually worth all the time and effort put into it. The skit was called "If I were not a Camper" and went something like this:



Though I switched out a few of the professions and changed it from boy scout to camper. The ref and police section made people laugh every time and the Pastor and politician were also grand. The boys that I had as the lunch lady and garbage man really REALLY got into it and that made that section hysterical as well. All in all it went over really well with the parents and I was super proud.

-Standing ovation
:: As I introduced myself before the skits I mentioned something about talking to all the parents at one point or another because my name was on everything. After the skits Pastor always does his thank yous and mine was the very last one. I even got a semi-standing ovation from half of the kids. Nice to know all of the hard work was appreciated.

-Walmart shorts, horseshoes, and etc.
:: The first thing that Jim and I do after youth camp - after eating lunch and almost falling asleep that is - is make a Walmart/Ray's Apple Market run for food for teen camp. This year Smo and Michael tagged along. As mentioned previously, I made fun of Jim for forgetting essential items and then ended up buying shorts for the rest of teen camp. It was pretty smooth. After buying out the grocery store we picked up my shorts and some cheap horse shoes at Walmart. Was nice being able to take our time and all that in the air conditioning.

-Fly zappers
:: So we bought all this food and after lugging it all in I picked up my fly zappers and got to work. They're the electronic fly swatters. You press a button and it zaps the fly. While morbid for the flies it's actually quite entertaining. And I make it that way because it's my only job in the kitchen. Jim doesn't let me help anymore after a few years ago when I karate chopped an avocado with a cleaver and missed my fingers holding it by a mere inch. Though this year I did get to help cut fruit. With a paring knife and constant supervision. But even Jim was a bit more relaxed in the kitchen this year because he has decided to promote Michael to head cook. Michael and I have already agreed that as soon as Jim retires from camp we will also, but he was happy to take over kitchen duties as long as Jim still helped out.

-With Bacon
:: The thing about teen camp is that it requires a lot of bacon. This year we had 20 pounds and went through 10 of those in a single meal. We had steak - with bacon to put on top - sauteed onions - which were sauteed in bacon grease - cheesy potatoes - with bacon on top - salad - with bacon on top - and brownies - with no bacon, but it did say it was on it on the sign hanging next to the lineup. You're stunned by this but it has became the norm at teen camp. Last year we went through at least 10 pounds so this year Jim stocked up. And you know we had to use it, couldn't let it go bad....we learned there's no such thing as leftover bacon.

-Missing Ferret
:: Campfire on Sunday night was all about teaching them the theme song. Another one of camp's traditions. Usually it's Liz that writes it but this year she took a step back and let Joel - our new lead guitarist - write this year. The song always revolves around the theme for camp. This year it was Gracebook so he added some Facebook lingo in there. It was really good, though it took us about a day and a half to realize the refrain sounded suspiciously like "Time of Your Life" by Green Day. Scroll down. Anyway, we thought we had it down after singing it over and over at youth camp, but teen camp campfires always seem to have some sort of drama and ours just wasn't the same without our lead guitarist (he just comes for youth camp).

-LOTR
:: After watching basically the same movies over and over we have decided to switch it up over the past few years. One year we did Star Wars' original trilogy, then there was Harry Potter...this year we went with the Lord of the Rings original trilogy. It was awesome, but long, and after starting it at 10:30 we ended up going to bed around 1:30. Which was fine, except we had to be up early the next day. Though not as early as youth camp - there's a major difference between 7:30 and 8:30...The fun thing about watching Lord of the Rings with Smo is that it brings back memories of her beating me in the middle of the night with her giant tiger because she dreamed she was being attacked by orcs.


Monday

-What kind of Star Wars are you watching?
:: While working in the kitchen - they were prepping, I was killing flies - we got on the topic of hospitals and blood. Smo said something about hearing her blood "wooshing" through her veins and how it sounded like Darth Vader. I don't know what kind of Star Wars she's been watching but I'm pretty sure that's not how James Earl Jones sounds. Just throwing that out there.

-Your face is wrong/I know words
:: Remember how I said we didn't go to bed until 1:30? Did I mention I didn't fall asleep until 2:30? This lack of sleep accompanied by the heat made me extremely tired throughout Monday. I don't know why Monday of all days, it may have something do with the fact that I was running on pure adrenaline Thursday-Sunday cause I'm partly in charge of youth camp and I'm only a helper at teen camp so I crashed...I don't know. Anyway, Oldest Sister and Squirt came for Monday of teen camp and I could barely form words. I don't know how this conversation started, all I remember was we were at a picnic table outside and I mumbled something that I understand but they didn't and they made fun of me. I know words, I just couldn't pronounce them at the time. Oldest Sister said I was wrong about something to which I contradicted saying in the dictionary there's a picture of her face next to the word "wrong" and kept repeating the phrase "your face is wrong" for the majority of the afternoon. I know words.

-Women start forest fires too
:: Of course there was a lot of Apples to Apples played at teen camp - and even a little played at youth camp. The only amusing one that I can think of at the moment is Squirt. The word was masculine and someone turned in a card that said "forest fires" to which she responded, "women start forest fires too" and immediately flipped the card over. Scuba Steve found a "trendy" expansion pack and added those cards to our bunch so now our collection includes nouns like "Hastag" "Mommie Bloggers" "Amish Mafia" and "Beliebers". That last one got used with the word "obnoxious" or something similar. Made me proud.

-Campfire fail/I need to use the sleep
:: As mentioned I was extremely sleep-deprived on Monday and by the time campfire rolled around it had come to my breaking point. This was the only outdoor campfire we did the whole week and we couldn't see cause it was dark. There was moke in our eyes from the fire and adding to those the kids didn't want to be there - you could tell cause they weren't participating at all. We were off with the beat because we couldn't hear them, my bandmates didn't want to play certain songs that the teens wanted to sing, and then I had an epic voice crack which made me laugh and I completely lost it laughing hysterically and basically just closed and sent them all away. Apparently even Jim leaned over to Pastor and went "I think there's something wrong with her." I needed to use the sleep.

-Family Guy/Cosmos War of the Planets
:: Since the failed campfire was outdoors and we started it late instead of watching the second movie in the LOTR trilogy Monday night (and being up 'til like 2) we instead watched our favorite camp movie of all time Cosmo's War of the Planets cause it was much shorter. Don't pretend you've seen it, I'm fairly sure you haven't. Which is a shame. Cause it's so bad that it's good. If you're commentating with the right group of people I should say. Cause you have to commentate otherwise it's super lame....because the characters names change, there are no special effects, the storyline's awful, but we still love it. It came out the same year as Star Wars did and we're thinking the filmmakers saw that and went "well, crap." But whatever, that one finished so early that we threw in a Family Guy Star Wars movie - which I fell asleep to.


Tuesday

-Alarm fail
:: Apparently I was so tired from the night before that I slept through my alarm. I have no recollection of it going off, but Smo heard the bell so we got to breakfast when the teens were getting there. Woops. But Jim and Michael seemed to have it under control.

-Nap Time
:: One of the songs we sing at campfire is called I Just Wanna Be a Sheep. It goes like this:
I just wanna be a sheep, baa baa baa baa
I just wanna be a sheep, baa baa baa baa
I pray the lord my soul to keep
I just wanna be a sheep, baa baa baa baa

As mentioned we were pretty sleep-deprived so by Tuesday Michael and I had changed the words to:
I just wanna go to sleep, nap nap nap nap
I just wanna go to sleep, nap nap nap nap
I pray the lord give me some sleep
I just wanna go to sleep nap nap nap nap

We were so tired that Jim and I actually took a nap for like 20 minutes before going back out for more groceries.

-Campfire redemption
:: Tuesday night's campfire was redemption night and I figured it out. You have to go in with a plan cause otherwise it drags on and they don't want to be there. So we started off with some Pharaoh Pharaoh (anytime you say that title Jim and Steve make a run for the hills cause they don't want to do the dance) moved on to some King Jesus is All, then Hole in the Bucket, took some requests and did Squiters and the Bedbugs (another camp classic) and finished with Someday. Which has become basically our annual theme song and every year it makes me cry. Mostly during the closing service of the youth camp, but teens sing it well too.

-Dance party
:: With teens you can't plan a dance party because they'll think it's lame. However, every year they want one, and I never know when it's going to be. Since Squirt was there Tuesday night again I basically pulled out my laptop and suddenly they were all over with requests. Cupid Shuffle, NSync, Backstreet Boys, Pharrell, and Barbie Girl were among the favorites. That's where most of the teen camp pictures come from, though this year I tried to take more of other stuff and ended up with a ton of board games pics and also a load of flour tag ones.

-More LOTR
:: The last night of camp we ended with the second of the Lord of the Rings trilogy because we did have time. The teens did smores, we had more rootbeer floats (which I avoided) and we basically pulled out everything we had left to snack on to get rid of it.


Wednesday

-Why, oh why
:: I don't know why but every year when Josh shakes my hand and thanks me for my help I get emotional. Josh is our teen camp pastor and he will forever be Josh because one time like 5 years ago I called him Josh and he went "finally, someone who doesn't call me pastor!" Thankfully I wasn't the only emotional one on hand but we only get that way cause we honestly do love camp. I miss it already. Not the hot weather so much or the bugs, frogs and trains that keeps me up late, but interacting with the kids, playing the games, eating good food, teaching the music and skits, making memories, it's all awesome.

-Rock and Roll McDonald's
:: Our final camp tradition is our yearly McDonald's trip. Each year after the closing service at teen camp and after the trailer and our cars are loaded Jim, myself, Steve, Pastor and now Michael stop at McDonald's for sort of a last meal thing. Steve and Michael order lots of food and count calories cause they're listed on the placemats while the rest of us make fun of the amount of food they order. No, actually, we're all dead tired so we joke about camp for about an hour and then head on our ways. It's a nice and relaxing way to end camp and we enjoy it.


Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash



Time of Your Life - Green Day



All in all it was a successful camp. We're calling it Redemption Year since last year was so bad. Here's hoping that next year's is even better. And that I don't injure my back like that ever again.

Tomorrow will be a list of the skits as usual. Hope you all are having a rockin' summer.

Hope you took your heart pills cause I’m coming out.

Lots to post about, let’s start with the big stuff.

So we went to see Cher. And Cyndi Lauper.

Yes, I know you’re all jealous. It was fabulous. She was fabulous. She said so herself. She is, after all, an icon. She can say whatever she wants, and she was right about that one.

Cyndi wasn’t bad herself. And I mean herself. Cher was surrounded by backup dancers, she had costume changes, and sequins galore. Cyndi was just Cyndi and a band.

And she held her own. She can still belt it.

But Cher was my favorite. And she sang all my favorites! Except Bang Bang, that one she skipped but that’s okay.

She made up for it with some good one-liners. Here are a few of my favorites:

Gonna squeeze this show in cause I’m off to Valentino's...

Hope you took your heart pills cause I’m coming out.

With just a piece of dental floss to keep me from plunging to my death…at 68.

What’s your granny doing tonight?

Been a gazillion years since my first Farewell Tour, and I was really old then.

People ask, is this your last farewell tour? Well shit, I can’t come back I’ll be dead. And well, some of you will be too.

I pissed off half the young female singers in this universe by saying "follow this bitches!"

I’ve been drinking this forever…Eisenhower was president. (about Dr. Pepper)

It's it's a white wine spritzer. Or a white trash white wine spritzer.

This sad-ass little cooler... (apparently that's an inappropriate gift for an icon)

And I’m so fabulous.

Why do you sit up there, you can’t see shit! and also the party is down here...

Here are some cool pics as well. Keep in mind we were way up there in the stands.



Cyndi Lauper




And the fabulous Cher




I should have taken a picture of the drunk chick in front of us. She was a fantastic dancer. Not really. Way off the beat. And it was more like swaying with random arm movements than actual dancing. I'm surprised she was still standing by the end of the night, but it was quite enjoyable to watch.

So, let me reiterate, Cher is fabulous and will remain fabulous. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a third farewell tour since every time she said this was her last one she winked and had her fingers crossed.

One way to stay in shape – though the dancers did most of the actual dancing.

Anyway, I went to see her with the boyfriend and my sisters. We had a lot of fun dancing it up. Second Sister and I got pretty into it, but the boyfriend and Oldest Sister joined in on occasion.

Mom and the Cool Aunt were there also, practically on the opposite side we were so there was a lot of waving going on.

The whole weekend was a lot of fun. The next day the boyfriend and I hit up the races – went to the pit after and met some of the drivers so that was fun. I still need a shirt that I can wear when I go to see the BFF as she is taking me to the races as well.

I know, how we both got sucked into those I’ll never know. I can’t come up with a valid explanation as it is other than our boyfriends are hooked and we’re supportive people. Mostly.

So that was this weekend. Oh and we watched a crap ton of Forensic Files as it was marathoned all weekend. It’s the boyfriend’s new favorite show even though it stopped airing new ones in 2010. Interesting stuff.

The weekend before that was fun too cause it was Juwanna’s wedding!

The boyfriend was out of town so I took SMO as my date. We danced the night away. I joked though because every wedding you go to everyone gets all choked up at the vows, nope, not Juwanna. She laughed her way through. I was so proud.

But everyone said the right name so it worked out.

It was pretty much a high school reunion so I got to see a lot of my old friends and some cool teachers too.

Even convinced one of them to hit up the photo booth with me. “Only cause it’s you.” Aw, I felt special. SuperHumann. She was my rock all through high school. And the reason I wanted to teach high school English. Before I went to college and said “screw that” that is.

Too many hoops to jump through. Plus me and children just don’t mix.

Good thing I work at a library and direct a youth camp, huh?

Joking.

Anyway, the wedding was great. We ate lots of food and danced the night away. Afterward SMO stayed over at my place and we jammed out for the weekend.

Was a nice and relaxing holiday.

Those are the big ones. I’m trying to think of other stuff…TAB Web Series is completed and up on the teen section of the library’s website…summer reading has started and work is overloaded with people…hmmmm… oh, the storms.

Tuesday was like storm central here so I ended up crashing with Oldest Sister since she has a basement and I don’t. But I left my cat at the apartment cause she has a dog. Does that make me a bad person?

Scale of Awesome’s for you:


The Neighbors


2/10 I officially hate Seth Rogan. So does the boyfriend. We hated him before this but we saw that good people were in this one so we gave it a chance. Oh my god, just no. Don’t do it, it’s that bad. Though not as bad as This Is The End.

Her


4/10 I feel bad for saying that cause I like the idea of the movie, I just don’t like how it turned out.

Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug


6/10 Better than the first one but I still feel like they’re dragging these out so they can make as many movies as possible.

Monuments Men


6/10 Also just okay. I was hoping for better, though it did have its moments.


Songs of the Week:

Don't Stop - 5 Seconds of Summer


diggin' it.

and of course...

Believe - Cher


my favorite of all of hers - followed closely by If I Could Turn Back Time, but that's mostly cause of this scene here:



tioooommme....

and i'm out.

You could buy a house and run away from it.

You know you're having a weird day when your dentists emails you with an eBook question.

In the middle of a Monday.

I didn't even know how to handle that, like, wait what?

Directed them to the troubleshoot email on the website.

Then stared at my phone for another 5 minutes in confusion.


Today flew by fairly quickly. Training at the Commission in the morning, crazy crowd in the lab at noon and then a slowed down afternoon doing supplies and working Youth Services.

After work went out to see the boyfriend. Finally saw We're The Millers.



Was so excited for this one even before previews came out.

Scale of Awesome says 7/10, it was pretty amusing but not something I'd watch over and over. I will rent it when it comes out at the library though.

Sat outside for a while before heading back, which reminds me I'm missing the meteor shower but I'm too tired to go look.

Smo's here sleeping as I should be as well.

Quote of the night:

Men are like oranges, you never know what you're gonna peel.

He may be sweet, he may be sour.

Sounds vaguely dirty but really isn't.

And I'm out.

"If there's ever a Church of Sheldon this will be when it started."

Facebook newsfeed makes me feel like such a stalker.

Facebook newsfeed makes me feel like such a stalker.

She got married?!

He's going back to school?!

She's pregnant?!

Wait, his kid is how old?!

And then it makes me feel old because all of these people are either my age or younger.

Smo is sleeping on my couch - well, studying on my couch - so I'm yelling it all at her but she didn't know either. So I don't feel completely out of the loop, though I have been swamped lately.

First day back at work after being gone for a week and a half. Always hard to go back, but it's worth it.

Today was good, dredged through my 150 missed emails and like 30 incident reports all for stolen items - good god seriously? - updated the TAB website, sent out instructions on volunteer application process - cause it was inconsistent and I'm sick of it - sorted through CD cases - joy and excitement. Tomorrow will be more of the same.

After work went out to see the boyfriend. Pizza Hut for supper and then out to the lake.



What has come to be known as "our spot" is usually relaxing but tonight the teenagers were having a party and blasting really crappy music. We could hear it loud and clear even though they were at the other end of the lake. We were tempted to call the cops just to tell them to play better music but we held off.

I should also mention you can only get to "our spot" by climbing over about 20 giant rocks that move when you step on them. And apparently I'm not the agile farm girl who once climbed to the top of the quonset anymore.

If you don't know what a quonset is it's basically like a giant round building in which you keep your farm equipment such as tractors and combines. Go here

Anyway, it's big.

But snow had drifted against it and I thought, hey I can climb that. So I did.

Mom freaked. Dad got the camera.

One of many defining parental moments.

Other than the crappy music the night was good. Watched some PopUp video on VHS, ran into an old friend at Walmart, showed him the Rebel Wilson and Independence Day videos posted here this week.

Calling it a victory.

On to the music.

Had two songs stuck in my head all day. The second I listened to at lunch so there was reason for that one but the first....no reason to be in my head whatsoever.

The White Stuff by Weird Al.

Which I refuse to post because I hate that song.

But I will post the second.

The Sheik of Araby - The Beatles


lesser known of their songs, but good nonetheless. according to wikipedia the Beatles covered this song in 1962 at their unsuccessful Decca audition with George Harrison as the lead singer and Pete Best on the drums.

interesting.

And I find it kind of funny I find it kind of sad The dreams in which I'm dying Are the best I've ever had.

Another season of American Ninja Warrior comes to NBC?

When was the first season?

And why?!

I know that you probably don't care, but this was epic.



And you should rejoice.

Because it's the finals, meaning after tomorrow you won't have to read my rambles on the Voice until next season!

When Xtina and Cee-Lo return!

I will miss Shakira though.

Maybe even Usher.

Okay, so here is my lineup for the last time.

Red = Adam
Green = Blake
Blue = Usher
Purple = Shakira

Judith Hill

Jess Kellner

Midas Whale

Caroline Glaser

Monique Abbadie

Sasha Allen

Michelle Chamuel

Sarah Simmons

Christian Porter

Jessica Childress

Jeff Lewis

Jacqui Sandell

Karina Iglesius

Holly Tucker

Garrett Gardner 

Danielle Bradbery

Amber Carrington

Savannah Berry

Josiah Hawley

Audrey Karrasch

Artists left:

Team Blake:
Danielle Bradbery
Swon Brothers

Team Usher:
Michelle Chamuel

Both Adam and Shakira are out.

Which is interesting because they had Judith, Sarah and Sasha. Who should have won this whole thing.

Now I'm guessing Danielle is gonna win it.

I haven't checked iTunes or Facebook and I'm not even halfway through the episode yet but I know she's gonna win.

I'm rooting for her or Michelle.

If the Swon Brothers I'm gonna be pissed.

I just don't get them apparently.

But I like Danielle because she and Blake are bringing back classic country music

Timber, I'm Falling In Love


and she's got the power vocals to do it.

And I like Michelle because she's the awesome nerdy underdog.

I Knew You Were Trouble


4 Eyes on the Prize yeah man.

Okay, sorry, I missed it tonight so I'm watching it now.


Slept in, did homework, went in for two hours, headed out to see the boyfriend, got dinner, watched a movie, and now I'm back.


Smo came in today.

Was fun getting to see her again.

She met Wordie.

Smo was my high school roommate.

Well, one of them.

I was sort of a serial roommate-er I guess.

Freshman year I had....2,1,3 so 6, and then Sophomore year was just me and Smo, Junior was Smo, Shel and Juwanna and then Senior year was me and Juwanna.

So like 7 roommates.

But that's leaving out all the girls that Smo and I got stuck with Sophomore year.

Every time somebody came to visit the school or started and then stopped or whatever, they lived with us cause we were the um I guess the most school spirited ones?

Mrs. Gotta called us bubbly I believe.

Or maybe that was one of the girls she stuck with us, I can't remember.

Anyway, so it would be 7 but there were 3 others that came and went during that year alone so that makes 10.

Meaning there were only 3 female classmates I didn't room with.

The joys of a dorm high school.

Interesting because in all of college I only had 1 roommate.

Though I requested it that way.

Myers and I had a lot of fun Freshman year but after she got her own place I was good on my own.

Sketch and I decided if we lived together we'd kill each other.

Why yes, we are the best of friends.

But that's the problem.

We wanted to remain best friends.

And you don't do that when you're trapped in a room with someone every day.

Though she did steal my extra mattress frequently.


I really don't remember anything else about today.

Was nice to sleep in since I was up 'til like 4.

I enjoy those 2 hour shifts, however gonna change and do half hour lunches on the weekends I work instead because then I'll have 2 whole days off. Instead of 1 day and 6 hours.

Okay, I know, I'm boring.


We watched Magic Mike tonight.

It was...interesting.

Didn't get all the way through it, but I do like the guys in it - Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, etc.

Pretty sure his house is haunted though cause during the movie his pop like exploded all over the place.

So apparently the house is not a fan of exotic male dancing.

Which is fine with me.

And that's really I got for today.


Mad World - Gary Jules


I know some people prefer the original Tears for Fears version but I like this one much better.

Lyrics match up better with the tempo on this one than the funki-fied T4Fs version.

Plus the video is cooler.

"you want some Smooth Move?"

So today rocked.

Slept in, went in at 12, worked basically upstairs the whole day.

Mom brought food keeping her reputation as favorite staff mom.

Was super swamped the whole day, but did get some time to write reviews for SLP the book and movie, and then Argo the movie.

Woohoo, speaking of, Bradley Cooper just won the MTV award for best male performance.

Sorry, watching the awards show I recorded cause I haven't had a chance to.

Love Rebel Wilson.

Anyway, we just got these installed at work this week.



They're awesome.

Even have sensors that can tell if your food gets stuck in the machine.

After work came home - Smo is staying over cause she has class in the morning.

I got to give her her birthday present - aka Pirate's Booty and some laxative tea called "Smooth Move". cause she used to say "Smooth move, Ex-Lax".



Carter hoarded the box, before he got addicted to fishing here:

See? He's cute stuff.

Anyway, so we watched The Voice.

She is also a fan.

Tonight was the first night of battles, some big surprises.

Here's my top twenty for season four including the changes

Red = Adam
Green = Blake
Blue = Usher
Purple = Shakira

Judith Hill - Adam, defeated Karina

Jess Kellner - Usher, defeated Taylor

Midas Whale - Adam

Caroline Glaser - Blake

Monique Abbadie - Shakira

Sasha Allen - stolen by Shakira

Michelle Chamuel - Usher

Sarah Simmons - Adam

Christian Porter - Blake, eliminated during battles

Jessica Childress - Usher

Jeff Lewis - Usher

Jacqui Sandell - Blake

Karina Iglesius - stolen by Shakira

Holly Tucker - Blake, defeated Michelle

Garrett Gardner - Shakira, defeated J'Sun

Danielle Bradbery - Blake

Amber Carrington - Adam, defeated Sasha

Savannah Berry - Blake

Josiah Hawley - Usher

Audrey Karrasch - Usher

Was a pretty good night for battles. Here are my favorites, songs of the day:

A Man's Man's World




You Know I'm No Good


and i'm out.

"You got hit by a car. Are you even human?" "The trick is to just relax your legs. I read it on wikiHow."

Et tu, Smo?

We give her crap cause her birthday's on the Ides of March.

Welcome to the world of twenty-five-dom.

Now you can feel old like the rest of us.

A day off, huzzah.

Needed one of those.

Slept in, did some cleaning, swapped a TV out with another TV.

Switched the one in my closet with the one in my bedroom. So now the one that was in the bedroom is on the dresser where the other one previous sat.

And these are like the old massive box style TVs so that was a bit of a workout.

But this one has a remote.

And I can plug both my PS2 and DVD player in it, whereas with the other one, it was bigger but there was no remote and I had to choose between my PS2 and DVD player.

After that my professor called - nightmare scheduling that one - and we talked about my final project. That I'm actually basically done with. She was shocked, apparently I'm the furthest along - score.

But it's a poster session, so basically we get one powerpoint slide and we have to put all of our information on it like an actual poster and then we'll have to present electronically, cause the class is all online. Curious as to how that's gonna work, but I guess we shall see.

After that I headed out to see the boyfriend. We ate and then went to see Identity Thief.



Which we wanted to see for a while, but were waiting for it to come to the theater out there. Usually the blockbusters aren't this delayed but they only have three screens.

Hilarious, 8/10 on the Scale of Awesome. I love Melissa McCarthy and find it humorous when her husband makes cameo appearances. They have a production company called On The Day, looking forward to their movies.

She's great, loved her since Gilmore Girls, which was long before her Bridesmaids fame. Which then led to Mike and Molly and then the whole Queen of Comedy thing. But she's hilarious and deserves it. I do love that she's the sane one in a family of crazies in Mike and Molly. Which is unusual cause in most of her roles she's the weird one.

Afterward we watched an episode of World Dumbest. I'm tempted to get the next package up with Dish just so I can get TruTV, I miss that show. Fell asleep watching it almost every night in college, love it.


Love it.

Alright, I'm off to sleep. Back to work tomorrow.


Song of the night

Feel This Moment - Pitbull feat. Christina Aguilera

super cool video but a weird collaboration of artists.

out

and the mutants over at table nine.

Took a night off yesterday as I didn't have much to say.

Not that that's changed today.

Slept in - only worked 12-4 - then got to lead a comps review. Well, the Library Goddess was technically in charge as we did it over speakerphone but I had half and she had half.

Except I'm not taking comps yet so I don't have the links. But they did so we were fine. It was a good group, pretty self-sufficient so it was fun.

After that Smo came over, she has class in town tomorrow so she's staying over.

We watched some Storage Wars and 2 Broke Girls after realizing that out the 26 people that graduated half of them are already married or engaged.

But that's huge cause like 2 years ago there were only 2 of us married.

To each other.

It's amusing to look back at those yearbooks and see how much people have changed.

Thinking back I wanted to teach high school English.

Now I sort of do.

I got the Teen Advisory Board and I work in Lit so I'm calling it a win.

No, I was in the ed program but dropped it after realizing how many hoops you have to jump through to get your degree. English was good enough for me and I'm glad I dropped it cause then I wouldn't be in the library world today.

I'm excited about the library world this week. Tomorrow is my night off so hopefully I'll be able to see the boyfriend, but Wednesday and Thursday I'm touring some sweet special libraries for class. Secret passage ways, ghost stories, etc. More on that later.

With these 2 online courses there's been some interesting stuff so far as well. We're working on this "story behind a story" project where you pick something in the news and then tie it with other links you think match so like if you were focusing on Sandy Hook you could talk about gun control, grief counseling, etc.

I'm thinking of going with the whole Obama thinking football is too dangerous. We do live in the center of Husker Nation where the majority of the residents are Husker fanatics - leaving out half my colleagues of course - but I'm thinking I can include stuff about concussions side effects, maybe statistics on injuries, talk about the history of football safety standards - the evolution of helmets and padding, etc.

We have to have 5 links and create a source ourself so you may be getting a blog entry on something of the like so I can link to it.

So here's your forewarning.

Don't know, it sounds fun and that's what I was going for. It's gotta be a national/international news thing that's relevant to our patron base. And really that's all I could think of that I found legitimately interesting.

I'll keep you posted on the progress I'm sure.

Alright, on to the music.

Watching The Wedding Singer so you're getting some 80's awesomeness.

You Spin Me Right Round - Dead or Alive

rockin' the purple jacket

I love this movie. Total 10/10 on the Scale of Awesome. Adam and Drew were great.

Grow Old With You - Adam Sandler

"NO WAY!"

he's actually a really good singer, especially in this movie. think he was a wedding singer in a past life.

one of my favorite drew movies.

and love them reunited in 50 First Dates

plus i totally saw Billy Idol live at Warped Tour back in '05. He's wicked.

legitimate pre-midnight post. holy crap tag in use.

"That sounds like an 80's acronym."

It all started with a conversation about stereotypes.

I'm pretty sure I'm turning into that librarian that makes people look at pictures of her cat. Cause the percentage of pictures I've uploaded on Facebook so far in 2013 is like 75% with cat, 25% not with cat.

And it's not like 100 pictures, it's like 5 so don't give me that look.

But he's cute and fluffy and sleeps all the time all over the place and I find it amusing when he sleeps next to McDermott the furby.

That he still hates, by the way.

Though I'm not its biggest fan when it turns on at 2AM just to ramble about being hungry or wanting to dance.

Anyway, so I said I'm turning into the stereotype cause I have a cat and I drink green tea to which BossLady asked if that means librarians are supposed to be hippies and that she composts - and she's quite proud of her compost - so then we got into this whole discussion about what goes into compost and how you're supposed to water your plants at night because the water evaporates during the day.

Then I asked her if she was one of those water police people who yells at you if you leave the faucet running whilst brushing your teeth to which she said she was and apparently in grade school they had this whole seminar on SWA SWA.

Which apparently stands for Save Water And Save Water Again.

Glad I wasn't drinking any water at the time cause there would have been multiple spit takes.

But SWA SWA had a salute and everything so from now on BossLady will be greeted with one cause I find it highly amusing.

Quote of the day:


"I loved growing up in the 80's"
"I grew up in the 80's"
"You were born in the 80's"

Then somehow we got on the subject of the farmhouse - oh I said Mom used to have a garden but then Dad put a building over the top of it. And she asked if we had a quanset to which I replied yes and I was stupid enough to have climbed to the top of it when snow had drifted that high.

Mom flipped, Dad went inside and got the camera.

So then the conversation shifted to how I was a brave kid, or an idiot kid, cause a few years before that was the running over to my grandparents house incident when I was like 3 or 4, barefoot on the gravel in the dark.

But it was at the scary part of the movie and I couldn't find my parents so I ran the half a mile to the safety of Grandpa's house and he drove me home and Mom and Dad didn't even realize I was gone!

To be fair they were helping Second Sister clean out a bin.

And you have to tag team those, you don't want to get hosed by the auger.

So I could blame my earliest memory on her but I kind of like her so I'll just call myself brave and be done with it.

And really that was the highlight of today. Everything else was pretty slow. Aside from the creepers everywhere, on the phone, in person, all that.

Blah magnet.

Well, the highlight of work anyway. I did a lot of homework tonight so I'm basically done until after the library visits this week.

Oh yeah, this week is gonna kick my butt.

Comps review Monday, special library tour Wednesday with homework to follow it, special library tour Thursday with homework to follow it, and then Trivia Night on Friday and I still haven't found anything to wear for Donna. I'm gonna have to look up some pictures of her in character and see if I have anything to cover.

Unless anybody has any fun 70's clothes they'd be willing to let me borrow for a night.

Anyway, I'm hoping to see the boyfriend either tomorrow or Tuesday, or both, so the other homework assignment that's due on Saturday I'll be doing throughout the week. Tonight's took far longer than it should have.

I hate coming up with smart people questions cause I always feel dumb.

Plus I'm an English major so phrasing gets to me and I start writing one question, changing it 50 times and then an hour later I change it back to how it originally was - which was fine I just was overanalyzing.

But it's homework and apparently I'm a perfectionist.

Anyway, it's late and I need to sleep. Carter is already decked out beside me.

Don't worry, I won't drown you in pictures. I'll save it for Facebook.

Though he is pretty cute.

Alright, on to the music so I can sleep.

Runaround Sue - Dion and the Belmonts

i used to sing this to my high school roommate.

not because she ran around, but because that was her name.

kick off your shoes and lay down

Here's the excitement from today:

-Left at 6:30AM for class at 8

-Last in-person session and our prof was gone for a funeral. Which is a bummer, but the sub knew what she was doing since she had taught the class previously.

-Talked all about Digital Libraries. She wanted us to define it. Even though each of us knows exactly what they are it's a morning class so we were still at that point chugging coffee and eating breakfast pastries. So she broke it down to "define digital" "define library". I told her a library is where books go to die.

Joking of course.

It's more like a place people go for information and entertainment.

-After class I met up with Smo for lunch. Well, breakfast/lunch, meaning I ordered breakfast food for lunch. It was massive and I brought half of it home. Which means I get to eat it tomorrow morning, before leaving for my other class. Yay for banana pancakes!

-Came home to watch the game. About gave me a heart attack. I'm sure that was true for others as well watching the highlights to the Notre Dame game and finishing the Alabama game. But we pulled it off. Miraculously.

-Halftime of the game was cleaning the apartment. During which I found out that my safe was leaking. And since I had no idea what was in the safe - last opened around 2008ish - I figured it would be a good idea to check it out.

But remember how I lost the keys?

So I got to break into my own safe with some paperclips and a screwdriver.

Is it bad that it brought me such joy when it actually opened?

MacGyver.

And that was pretty much my day.

More fun tomorrow so I'm out soon. Turned on some Burn Notice. Rewatching season one and working my way forward. Still haven't seen the second half of season two on, but it's been so long I figured it'd be best to start at the beginning again.


Song of the day:


Sleazy Bed Track - The Bluetones

he punched the highlights out of her hair!

get-et-et in line and settle down.

So he didn't trip or say the wrong name.

And no one passed out up front or at the reception.

Though Juwanna was pretty close to losing her stomach contents for a while there.

You could tell too cause she and Smo and I dance.

Like dance.

Lots.

And she went from jumping and swinging and craziness with us to just swaying softly while Jared held her upright.

Barely.

But she was good by the end of the night.

It was a fun time, I dragged the boyfriend out onto the floor though I think I drug the boyfriend's best friend out there more.

He seemed to have a pretty fun time.

Got some sweet pictures from mom of us doing Macarena and Cotton-eyed-Joe. Will have to upload them later.

Saw a lot of old friends, was super cool cause my twin was there!!!! Who I haven't seen in literally years!

No, seriously, he's like my twin. Born on the same day in the same hospital, our moms were like 2 doors apart, both have the brown hair and similar personalities. Though I totally gave him crap cause he's been with the same girl for 8 years and there's still no ring on her finger.

Dude.

What's up with that?

Seriously?

Got a picture with him and Tweet as a class reunion kind of thing, we were down two but it still counts. And I felt super super short, it was ridiculous. I need to start wearing heels.

Don't quote me on that, it will never happen.

And it wouldn't have helped anyway, Tweet is like 6'4 and Alex is gotta be over 6.

I think I'm like 5'6, maybe 5'7.

Squirt has me beat, and Bubby will soon.

That's how sad my height is.

After the reception we headed up to Tweet's place, where half of us crashed while the other half of us jammed out to some music and joked around for a while. Got back to the farmhouse about 4, drove through some serious fog, but I had Smo with me so I was good.

The only problem with getting back to the farmhouse at 4AM is that I didn't fall asleep until about 5:15 and then I was up at like 8 cause I had to drive back at like 9:15 and for some reason I couldn't go back to sleep for that whole extra hour. So I stopped for gas and some fantastic cappuccino, which I forgot it was as good as it is. Perhaps I'll stop there more often.

Smo headed off to her place and I made it back to the apartment with time to shower and change - cause the only clean clothes I had with me were the two other dresses I brought so that Juwanna/Smo could tell me what to wear, and clearly I was not wearing those to work.

And besides, if I did, Queen of the Known Universe would kick my butt that I wore them on a day she wasn't there to give me crap for them.

So I was pretty much the walking dead until about 3:30 when I took my lunch.

Which I spent in my car.

Cause my phone was dead.

After work the boyfriend stopped by because he had to pick up yet another motorcar to add to his collection, which I believe now totals at 7.

Not that I'm complaining, he seems to enjoy them and as I have a bit of background with trains myself it's not exactly a foreign concept to see train memorabilia start to grow. And grow. And grow.

But it's his hobby and he loves it.

And I love him so I guess I can love it too.

Yeah, speaking of love, there was a lot of wedding talk going on this weekend.

Like, an excessive amount.

Cause apparently we're next.

But we're not, cause that's Juwanna. She's got the ring to prove it.

So people kept asking me when we were gonna get engaged and I told them to go talk to him cause he's the one that's asking, and apparently he was deflecting them to me because somehow I'm in charge.

We'll see about that.

Not that it will be happening anytime soon.

Just eventually.

Yes, I'm happy.

For the first time in a very long time.

Which occasionally turns me into some weird emotional girl.

Get used to it.

I have.

Alright, Juwanna's nausea aside, it was nice to see some old friends and get to spend actual time together. Even though half of us live in the same town anyway, we still never see each other. Gonna have to work on that.


Settle Down - No Doubt
reunited and it feels so good.

L.A.M.B. and cheerleading B-A-N-A-N-A-S's are good, but it's hard to top Rock Steady.

holy crap, was that seriously 2001?

and don't speak was what like, mid-90's?

now I feel old.

Glad they're back.

Alright, since I'm still a bit in zombie-mode I'm gonna crash.

And I get the pleasure of sleeping in because I don't go in until 4.

So don't call me before noon.

I will not answer.

OUT!

oppan gangnam style

Should I be scared that someone got to my blog by doing a web search for "woman who don't swallow captions".

I think I should.

So tomorrow.

Well, technically later today as it is officially after midnight.

The little boy that used to steal my headbands put them on and call himself Tylah gets married tomorrow.

Which means we're officially getting old.

He's got the gray hair in his beard to prove it.

Which amuses me greatly.

It's been interesting to observe this relationship. Tweet was always a bit on the wild side - but in a good way - and she's very mature so now he's all grown up and stuff.

It's cute, they're cute.

But the problem with hanging out with a bunch of engaged people is that people ask when you're going to get engaged.

And his mother already told me that we're having three kids, as are his sister and brother. Cause she wants lots of grandkids.

Hysterical cause I told that to Juwanna tonight and she was like, "ha! you?! does she know you?!"

Me and needles aren't such great friends.

Even watching a birthing video made me run to the bathroom.

And had Juwanna running after me to make sure I was okay.

Someone brought that up at the class reunion and her response was, "that's why I don't know anything about babies, I ran after you!"

Was fun to see everybody tonight. Big shoutout to Tammi and the awesomeness that is her crew. Very impressive decorating job for only 12 hours. That building is gigantic, I remember that from when Second Sister had her reception there.

Having a lot of flashbacks, especially when on the phone with Smo while at the reception hall. Cause she went to that reception as well. That was a lot of fun. I love receptions. Good food, fun times with friends, our family is filled with dancers so they're always amusing to see out on the dance floor. Somehow we always end up in a giant circle with people going through the middle showing off their moves.

And then there's a lot of SNL Spartan Cheerleader dancing, which I blame on my cousins. They're the ones that performed it at a family reunion and then at the reception of yet another cousin's wedding.

We have a lot of us, there are 20 of us.

And only, oh geez, like 8 of us left that aren't married I think...I think.

But we're all approaching that age - with the exception of Kyle who just got his driver's license. So there will probably be a whole bunch of them within the next decade.

Apparently I'm all about weddings today.

But it's better than talking about the obnoxious dude that made me help him with computer stuff for all three of his sessions and just redo everything we did yesterday. Blah, whatever it's done. And I'm off tomorrow so if he goes in and requests me yet again he'll just have to figure it out himself.

We have plenty of great reference/computer people. I don't know why he keeps seeking me out, I already have enough stalkers, I don't need any more.

Alright, off the music and then I'm gonna crash cause fun day tomorrow. Golfing with G-Wigger and Obi-Wan. Should be fun in the morning, then the game is at 11, after that is the wedding and reception.

Tonight was just good, you know? Made up for all the crap I got stuck with today. And the boyfriend is wonderful to put up with all this wedding and kids talk. Actually he said he would be content with all of it so I was pleased. And he gave me his jacket which was another flashback cause in high school he had this bright orange sweatshirt that I'm pretty sure I wore for like a month straight.

Okay, really music now.

So, unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months you've probably already watched this but I'm going to post it anyway. It actually just exploded, I can't believe it's only been online for like 2 months and there are already over 172 billion views. Madness



Gangnam Style - Psy



Psy teaches Ellen and Britney Gangnam Style




alright, off to bed.

cause i had my tray table up and my seat back in the full upright position...

So I'm engaged.

Well, that's what I told a creepy stalker today.

Yes, Sketch, I could hear your "What?!" all the way from Illinois.

It's the newest of the stalkers that I mentioned a few posts ago. He saw the ring and asked and since I feel like he's hitting on me constantly I said I was engaged thinking he would stop but then he started talking about rings and how he got a cheap one for his ex-boyfriend.

So guess I was safe anyway.

But the fiance thing was already out there and there's no real way to take it back aside from saying, I lied cause you were creeping me out.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to a friend's dress rehearsal meaning I have to leave straight from work meaning I have to actually dress up dress up tomorrow. Though not a dress. I promised him I'd wear one for his wedding but didn't mention anything about the rehearsal. And the boyfriend is in it which is why I'm going to the dinner which should be fun. I'm stoked, I love going to friend's weddings to see who's in them and see people and dance the night away.

Took a while to pack and now that I have all these dresses that Mom keeps bringing me and Oldest Sister keeps taking me shopping for I don't know which one to wear. So I'm taking like three and I'll have Smo pick. She picked which one I wore to the last NELHS wedding. Which was more like a NELHS reunion cause both bride and groom went there.

Today was pretty uneventful aside from my own personal drama. Which was stupid in the first place. And my boyfriend is wonderful and puts up with everything.

2 people called in and then 1 more went home sick. Which doesn't bode well for the rest of us.

Finished all my homework for the week. Which was a quiz, IT in libraries paper, and community analysis aka demographic study. It didn't take as long as I thought it would and I literally did a victory dance after posting them.

Albuquerque - Weird Al
i was off by three but i still won the grand prize...

Cool video for someone that's not the performing artist. But I keep spelling the title wrong.

I remember we listened to this when we were driving through Albuquerque on our way to California.

The song lasted longer than our drive through the town.

I miss those cousin vacations. We keep saying we should go to Vegas but then get busy and it goes on the back burner. Probably won't happen until after I finish grad school and all that. Which actually isn't that far away. December of 2013 I think. Should start a countdown.

Okay, I really should crash as it's almost 1 and tomorrow will be crazy. And Saturday. Which means I should sleep when I can.

And I wouldn't be surprised if this was my last post for the next few days. Receptions tend to go late. Which is why I did all my homework early. I didn't want to have to leave early just to finish homework. Blah.

Alright, falling asleep. Off to bed.

Yes, I'm aware this turned totally lame. But the next post I'll have actual material to post about.

if you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again. if you need help hang up and then dial your operator...

Querque!

and the towels are oh-so fluffy

yep, 1:09, definitely back-posting and then crashing.

wait a minute, I'll go check.........NO! we're out of bear claws!

I have a big head and little arms.

Okay, I've been super crappy blogger lady lately I'm aware, so that ends now.

Before it was either not posting or posting about nothing, but now I actually have stuff to post about so we're good.

Yeah, you know it's bad when your mom texts you and asks if you're okay.

Yes.

I'm fine.

Just been busy.

Okay, where were we?

Ah yes, so Fearless Leader had her last day and the next day all hell broke loose when the mail didn't show up and the delivery truck broke down meaning today we were just swamped and had like a holds cart in the morning and then another in the afternoon.

After the madness Smo came out and stayed over last night - which is why there was not post-age so you get double tonight - ordered some burgers, watched some Warehouse 13, and pulled out the yearbooks going, "wait, who was that guy again?" Our class started as 32 and ended at like 26, but sadly the class above us lost even more people and graduated with like 13 or something. It was super small.

Speaking of the class above me, my roommate from college was in that class and she texted me this morning a quote from Grey's - actually scared the crap out of me cause usually when I get Grey's quotes they're from Sketch. I hit reply and went, wait, what? I get random ones from her every once in a while but now she is all married and pregnant and working so she's busy.

But that's okay cause I'm busy too.

Anyway, so Smo was here and we jammed out and had fun cause she's always fun. Reminisced about a bunch of high school stuff, actually realized that there's just three of us girls left that aren't engaged/married/parents out of the...eh, there were only like ten of us. But still, amusing.

Then she started making fun of Frank.

Remember Frank? Go here 

He's cute. And he has a big head and little arms. Which reminded us of this:


and I found one that repeated it and we seriously watched it over and over

and then in the "related" field we ran across this one


"it's so fluffy i'm gonna die!!" and then proceeded to watch that over and over

and then again, in the "related" field came this one



so yes, they are making a second. And sort of a 1 1/2 cause there's one called Minion Madness as well.

Anyway, after some burgers and Warehouse we both konked out, then she took off this morning when I left for work.

And speaking of leaving for work - no, none of this will be in order - so you know when you wake up and you're like half asleep? Not yesterday morning, but the day before totally broke my toilet. Well, the handle. Cause you know you pull and then it's there and then you're like wait, that's not supposed to come off, but you're half asleep so you don't really understand what just happened?

So yeah, that was a fun voicemail to leave for my apartment people, basically, um, this is broken and I don't know what to do and I have to go to work so I'll check in later.

And then never did cause I got swamped.

And speaking of never did - apparently yesterday my dentist called - no, not my cellphone, they called me at work - and I was on break so they said they'd call back - and then never did, so I don't know if I'm supposed to call them or like wait for them to call me....I don't know why they called my work, they have my cell number as my main contact.

I think.

I'll call tomorrow cause I have the day off.

So much to do tomorrow, finish editing, read for homework stuff, post homework stuff, go shopping to buy more page protector things, and at some point I would like to sleep, though right now it's already 2AM - which isn't a big deal since I'm off tomorrow - but in order to sleep in you need to actually first fall asleep.

Let's see, so we got Wednesday, that was the broken toilet, hell breaks loose at work, Smo comes over - oh yeah, and it was all fixed by the time I got home. Which rocked cause that would've been awkward.

So that was Wednesday.

Thursday was today? Right.

Yes, Thursday was today. So she left this morning and I have this whole like free week of XM radio in my car cause they want me to sign up but I never do, anyway, so I didn't realize that I had forgotten my ipod - and I didn't realize how much I actually listen to music during the day cause there's lunch and there's off desk for projects and stuff so I totally had to update Pandora on my phone and listen to that instead with my backup/broken headphones that was miraculously still in my bag.

Yes, I'm aware that I'm pathetic cause I couldn't last one day without some sort of substitute for my ipod, but I don't have any music stored on my phone and then Pandora is internet radio so it kept killing my battery so I had to pull out the charger and take that with me like through lunch and then at my desk.

And I needed that to be charged cause I knew I'd need it later because I only have one charger in my car and I was using it for my GPS - Squirt had her first volleyball game tonight, she started and she rocked and they won so it was fun - anyway, but it was an away game and the high school they played is way up north and I had no idea how to get there so I tried to plug it in to Thomas my GPS but I never update Thomas so Thomas had no idea what the hell I was talking about so I ended up calling the library for directions!!

Don't you just love reference?

And I called the home branch - because for some reason I always call the home branch instead of the work branch for directions but I think that's more because when I need directions it means I'm not at work and when I'm not there it means we're closed - yes I do work too much - so I called the home branch and talked to the newest employee there who I get to work with every once in a while, she's fantastic, was talking me through it.

Totally found it and made it without driving in circles like an idiot.

So, they won 2 sets out of 3, Squirt rocked and the red hair was sweet cause they have green uniforms. Which means I should get a green shirt so I can like blend in and stuff.

After that I headed out to see the boyfriend - though the majority of the time he was working on motorcar stuff and then loading them up and all that.

I felt like the trophy girlfriend cause I couldn't do anything - my knowledge of mechanics is slightly limited - shutup Sketch - so I basically held the flashlight and made commentary. But he's very handy so he knew what he was doing. And he's smart because I'm clumsy so I'm sure I would screw something over.

But he is leaving to go on a trip with his dad until Tuesday so I knew if I didn't see him tonight it wouldn't be 'til like midweek next week, which made me realize how much I actually am in love with him because the thought of that just made me think, nope, that's too long to be apart so I'll go out there tonight and see him for like 2 hours.

So I did and it was fun and now I'm back, and after talking to Sketch for an hour did some homework and posted it though stuck on some other stuff - that isn't due 'til later - but it won't let me login to their library databases page and I know my way around our databases but theirs are different and their login thing is weird and I don't know what I'm doing so I got to send yet another dumb question email to our fantastic professor - I think that's actually the fourth email I've sent her this week and I'm supposed to know stuff cause I'm a GA but apparently I know nothing so I am sucking at that job.

Perhaps I should stop rambling and sleep.

Carter is staring at me going, do you know what time it is. Put down the computer so I can sleep. Cause he sleeps on my stomach at night. Like it's ridiculous cause he's really fat like 21 pounds of fat cat and I'm pretty sure my back looks something like this when I sleep

O--_____-----B
          ^ Carter

Yes that is a head and those are feet.

Just go with it.

Like I said, sleep, I need sleep.

No matter what the Barenaked Ladies may claim, people do need sleep or we would all go crazy. So I shall sleep now.

I mean, after these, then I'll sleep.

So, the joys of Pandora is that it's internet radio so you can like pick your genre. Today I went with '90s pop and ran into a bunch of random songs that I'd completely forgotten about, such as these:


"Torn" - Natalie Imbruglia



"Iris" - Goo Goo Dolls



THERE.

Enough for a couple of missed days and nothing posts?

A rambling mess, for sure, but hey it's something.




when everything's made to be broken i just want you to know who i am.