Shock me like an electric eel.

These are the days of our lives.

I know, I know. I suck at this game.

I used to be so good, I don't know what happened.

I have a lot to cover so I'm debating on how to do this. I could do it chronologically, which would make the most sense, OR I could do good, bad, other/interesting, OR I could do big highlight, little highlight, rinse and repeat.

Or by group. Hm. Let's try that.

Family:

We celebrated Mom's birthday back in March. She turned 70 and all she wanted was a weekend with her kids (and grandkids) at a nice hotel. But of course we got her presents anyway. They had booked a whole corner of the main floor and we had pizza and free drinks and all that. It was fun. Eventually the kids went swimming - the boyfriend is gonna be favorite uncle, I'm telling you, they kept flocking to him so he would throw them in, it was adorable - while the rest of us played Cards Against Humanity which - if you weren't aware - is like the mature version of Apples to Apples.

Here are a couple that I won with, though actually in the end myself and Oldest Sister tied. I think.

After everyone else went to bed the boyfriend and I walked to the train station at around 1AM. This is what happens when you date someone with vampiristic tendencies - since he works nights he doesn't sleep at night so we walked around downtown for a while then watched some TV - Leverage, Forensic Files, etc. Fell asleep after a while but were actually coherent enough to beat most people down for breakfast in the morning. Huge buffet - omelets, french toast, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, potatoes, all that - it was fabulous.

The birthday celebration wasn't the only family party since my last post. We actually had something even bigger - my parents 50th wedding anniversary. I think around 250 invitations went out and we probably got around 300 people that showed up, it was crazy. My siblings and I got everything set up beforehand - which was an adventure in itself. Tables, tablecloths, pictures on all the tables, other various decorations, setting up my computer with the slideshow and projector. Plus then we took some family photos. By the time we got done with all that there were people already filing in. Thankfully between the decorations and the pictures we were able to get ready ourselves. Unfortunately, the light in the women's restroom was out - well, the one by the mirror was out - so all us girls ended up putting our makeup on in the men's restroom. Another adventure. The party itself was great. Both of my parents gave speeches. Dad's was hilarious. I shouldn't have been surprised since he is very clever. And mom bought flowers for all of her attendants so during her speech I was running all over the place attempting to deliver them. Apparently having a 27-year-old daughter is a good thing when you are 70. The only downfall to being 27 to parents that are older is that everyone at the party knew me as a kid and I hadn't seen them in years so remembering all their names was a bit complicated. Actually at one point I had to go and get Mom cause I was just drawing a complete blank and she was so smooth, she was like ___ and ___ it's so nice to see you! A-hah! Yes. Now I know you. Anyway, the food was great, the people were excited to be there, the slideshow went over well, and my parents had a really good time so I'm calling it a victory.

Between both of those parties was Easter. We did church and lunch with the boyfriend's family and then afternoon and supper with mine. Huge egg hunt in the afternoon which of course I always get stuck being the one in charge of. Even though I wasn't even there 'til after lunch. So much stuff this year that we were basically just running around and dropping stuff as we went. The boyfriend was no help whatsoever. He and my brother have apparently bonded cause while the other adults were hiding eggs, I look back and they are picking up the stuff that we just hid and stealing all the good candy out of them. Cheaters. Though there was plenty of candy for the kids. I even ended up taking home more than I should. More on that later.

Another fun family thing was going to the Red/White game with the Cool Aunt. Ever since I was put in charge of volunteers I haven't been able to go because the banquet for them is always the same day and time as the game. This year we changed it and I'm loving that, I hope it stays that way. You know me and my Husker football, I would go to all the games if I could. Anyway, this year was a big year because of the new coaching staff and quarterback drama. Tommy will probably start but he has some competition. The game was awesome and I taped it so I get to re-watch it whenever I want. The Cool Aunt and I got there super early so we could get our food, seats, and all that. The game was awesome, lots of people there and we even did the wave and all the chants and all that. I'm super stoked to see how this season turns out. Clearly there are things we need to work on. Passing probably being the biggest. But it should be a good year.


Boyfriend:

The boyfriend and I have been up to a lot as well. Within the past few weeks we've went on two different motorcar trips - one in Kansas, the other in Iowa. Kansas was fun because I had never been on that ride before. We also stopped to look at a railroad signal at this guy's house and the dude was on American Pickers so you can just imagine everything that was all over his yard. He gave us a tour of his house which was very much the same. Antiques everywhere, even hanging from the ceiling. The motorcar ride itself was a lot of fun. The boyfriend surprised me by spending the week before the trip fixing up the motorcar that I had bought him for Christmas. I didn't realize that's the one we would be riding until he unloaded it. It actually ran really well so we also took it to Iowa and...well...that was a different story. Died out within the first few miles. So, more work to be done on that, along with his 80 million other projects. Luckily, Popper Boy doesn't bring spare parts, he brings spare cars so we had a different one to ride. Long story, don't even ask. This year was a bit different than previous years though because we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast instead of a regular hotel. It was really neat. Though without TV or Wifi we did end up going to see The Woman In Gold the night we got there. Scroll down for the review of that. His buddy and the buddy's girlfriend stayed with us at the B&B so that was a lot of fun.

I took a lot of pictures for both rides. Here are some of my favorites.













Another adventure with the boyfriend that will blend in nicely with my next category is hockey season. It is now officially over, which I'm totally bummed about yet at the same time, it's probably a good thing. Our team this year was not fantastic. That's kind of an understatement, we got last in the division. Granted we did have a brand new coach and manager and all that, but still, it was rather pathetic toward the end. While the season itself took a downward spiral after our coach suddenly started trading off a bunch of our best players, it did have its moments. Some unexpected victories, big fights, and enough walking tacos to make me think it is definitely time to get to the gym. After the last home game they had a player meet-and-greet out on the ice. Myself, the boyfriend, and the Archaeologist went around taking pictures and getting stuff signed.

Okay, they walked around with me while I got my picture taken and stuff signed. Though she did get her picture taken with a few times. And the boyfriend went along with all of it. He even suggested we take a picture together in the penalty box which made me almost forgive him for calling me a "jersey chaser" five minutes earlier. But I got to meet my favorite player along with others I like and when I tweeted the pictures both he (and a woman who I assume is his mother) retweeted the one of me and him labeled as my favorite.

Jersey chaser. Thanks babe. He's like 17. That's just gross.


Friends:

My Archaeologist ditched me for greener pastures. Literally. But she'll be back. Eventually. This is the one who sits behind us at the hockey games. It's nice to have someone here with similar interests/problems that we can get like lunch or supper or see movies or whatever. Though now that she's gone I'm eating shawarma all alone.

Cue the sad girl music.

Allll byyyy myyyyyself....don't wanna be....okay that's creepy. I'm stopping now.

Anyway, she house-sat for a couple of people before leaving so we did a lot of movie-watching and burger eating. Plus trips to Cabelas, Canes, and Culvers. All in one day. We call them Capers. Cause our names start with C's and for some reason we go to a lot of C-named places. Crave. Cherry-in-Top. Etc.

These are the days of our lives.

And speaking of friends I got to see an old one a few weeks ago as Homey G Wigger made a reappearance in Nebraska. She was in-state for a confirmation so we got supper and jammed out for a while. Was good to catch up. Really should work on that whole pen-pal thing. I'm awful at correspondence. Ipso-facto, this blog's sudden downturn. Honestly I don't know how I did this every day for so long. Pretty sure it helped that I had no life, now it's like I barely have time to sit still, let alone post for hours on end.

One of the reasons I get to be so busy for the next few months - and notice that was a "get to be" not "have to be" - is Camp J season has officially started. We had our first meeting and the site went live on May 1st. And yes I've already gotten more than 10 applications in less than a week so, good to know kids are excited about camp this year. Even though I'm hesitant of the date change. Long story. But I need to get my act together with spreadsheets and planning. My inbox and voicemail will be flooded 'til August.

I'm more nervous for this year than I ever was before. That includes the year that Jim and I took over registrations and knew absolutely nothing about how to do it. This year will be the first year without an integral member of our team and I'm not sure how to handle things without her. Last year was redemption year, this year will be remembrance year. I need to get back to working on the guitar. She wrote so many songs over so many years, I'm hoping to work with my fellow music leaders on how to incorporate some of them into this year's camp. I'll keep you posted on that one.



Work:

Ah work. We're at an interesting juncture in my worklife experience. We're venturing into a new ILS system. This will be my third. First was Horizon, then Koha, now it's Symphony. Well, Sirsi-Dynex, but they call their product Symphony. This week and last have been kind of like attempting to control chaos. The fun part about training for a new system? You get to practice for hours on end. Part of practice is creating new library cards for fake patrons. My fake patrons of choice? Myka Bering and Calamity Jane. While both technically reside (or resided) in South Dakota, I moved them to Lincoln. One on Warehouse Avenue and the other on Deadwood Road. Of course they both disappeared when we went live. Boo.

Luckily for stressful times as these there is Staff Association, of which I am a member and somehow got to be in charge of this huge Mini-Golf event thing that took place. I think it's because I had my phone at the meeting and was able to look up prices and times and all that. Whatever, it was fun. A bit of stress in the planning, but worth it in the long run. We opened it up to all the staff and everyone picked teams and dressed up (if they wanted). The best dressed and most spirited won prizes along with best/worst scores, most holes-in-one, and most wet balls. Yeah, guess who won that one. To be fair I only lost 2 and was able to retrieve them.

That's not the only fun thing from work lately - we also just had some big volunteer events over the past few weeks. First was the Volunteer Banquet where we invite all the volunteers from all the branches to this big shindig and the mayor comes and gives a speech and we give them fancy snacks. The fun part about all that is jamming out with the other volunteer supervisors before and after the shindig. This year we joked about my mayor's award and how I need a traveling case so I can whip it out when needed. Basically a fancy fanny pack. So of course when I went to talk to the Mayor and he had no recollection of me whatsoever - to be fair he does that like once a month and he's been in office for like ever - I debated on purchasing one. But then I remembered that this isn't the 90s and they're still tacky. Quote of the day: "It's not like you saved someone's life or anything." Haha.

The other volunteer event was the Paperback Processing Party for my teens. Remember how every year we go to Barnes and Noble to pick out paperbacks for the library to purchase? Well, they came in and then we got to process them. It's fun for them because it's all the TAB groups - well, minus one this year - but they get to talk to people and they get first dibs on the material.

Other various work excursions since my last post have been Inservice - of which I only attended the morning session since we went to Kansas that afternoon. The speaker was good - it was mostly about safety in libraries...which doesn't make you paranoid at all... - plus NLA, that's our big annual conference for librarians across Nebraska. I was asked to be on the committee to put the whole thing together so that's gonna be a new and exciting adventure. We had our first meeting and it's a fun group of people - Library Goddess aka my former boss being one of them. Looking forward to it.

Somewhere in the midst of all this Queen of the Known Universe and I went to see Info-Man's play. They did "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Death Star" and it was fabulous. It's set up like it's a convention and the actors are reading the script to their upcoming movie however not all the actors could make it to the reading so the actors are playing like 3 characters each. For example, Darth Vader was also Han Solo. Yoda was also a Storm Trooper. And Info-Man played the bus driver, emperor, George Lucas, and a cantina bar singer. Highly entertaining, I bought the soundtrack, we loved it.

And what list of stories about work would be complete without including a strange patron interaction? I'm at the desk, right, and this lady comes up to check out some books. She starts handing me her card and then suddenly pulls it away and the conversation goes something like this:
"You are fragrant and I don't want it on my card, can I just scan it by myself?"
"What?"
"You smell like vanilla and I don't want it on my card, can I scan the card by myself?"
"Um, sure?"

So she scans the cards and the books and leaves. My coworker comes over and goes "That was rude." Me, not exactly sure what just happened or how to respond said something like "well, there are worse things to smell like, but I'm not wearing vanilla so I don't know what she was talking about." I was confused for the next few seconds but then I went over to the bookdrop and it was like WahBam! Vanilla! So, someone on the self-check must have been the one drenched in it, not me. Perhaps she had allergies and it just came off as awkward. I'm sure she's a nice person, but it was still weird.



Scale of Awesome's for you.

Interstellar


Scale of Awesome says 9/10. This movie - while long - was worth every minute. I will admit it started off slow and I was a little confused, but once the mission officially started I was hooked.


Woman in Gold


Scale of Awesome says 9/10. Really liked this one as well. Based on a true story and both leads - Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren - were fabulous. Really interesting to learn about art recovery and that specific case.


Predestination


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. So confused. So much shorter than necessary. Need an epilogue. What happens now?


Get Hard


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. I loved Will Ferrell on SNL but for some reason I just do not like his movies. I gave this one a chance cause I like Kevin Hart. It was alright, not wonderful, not awful, but alright.


The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. Watched this one with the Archaeologist. The problem with this movie is that there is no like "previously on the Hobbit..." It just starts from where it left off and if you haven't seen the previous one in like months then you're screwed. Or at least we were. Thankfully I had grabbed the second one as well and we ended up putting that one in and then skipping around so we could remember why the one guy was in jail, why the other guy was wounded, which dwarf the chick was in love with, the difference between the Bowman and Thorin and also what the hell happened to Gandalf. Then we attempted the new one again successfully. Was pretty good in it's own right, but you really can't compare this trilogy to the original trilogy because it would just fail completely.


Nightcrawler


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. Dude, this dude was messed up man. Anything for a good shot. Kind of made me want to smack him, but made for an interesting movie.


Maze Runner


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. One of my TAB kids is obsessed with this movie. I feel like I would get more out of it if either 1. I was a teenage girl, or 2. I had read the book. Neither of those will be happening anytime soon.


Horrible Bosses


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. This is like the anti-Jennifer Aniston role, seriously. Nothing like her whatsoever and she pulled it off! Actually it was very funny.


Horrible Bosses 2


Scale of Awesome says 6/10. The first one was probably better, though this one did have its moments. I love Chris Pine.


Ridiculousness


Scale of Awesome says 9/10. Mindless humor, and I love Rob Dyrdek. It's highly entertaining and reminds me a bit of World's Dumbest.


Dances With Wolves


Scale of Awesome says 8/10. Sharon Rayder! I totally screamed and he was like what the hell? So, the boyfriend made me watch this one cause he was horrified that I hadn't seen it yet. Apparently it's a classic. I can see why. Even though it was like 3 hours long - which I was not expecting - it was really entertaining. I liked the storyline a lot.



On to the music:

Loving my new iPod. It fits all my music whereas my old one severely limited my music selections. Being able to listen to all my music has brought forth many songs that I forgot I knew.

Like these classics:

Gonna Get a Life - Mark Chestnutt



All 'Er Nothing - Oklahoma


used to sing this one a lot when i was little. is funnier now.

foot.

Electric Feel - MGMT


okay this one i've sang a lot lately and the irony of that being that someone actually checked out the MGMT CD like 2 minutes after i had gone around the building singing it in my head. i freaked, it was awesome.

and moving on to some new stuff

Budapest - George Ezra


love this one, give it a chance.



Alright, and that's all I got. Hope you had an awesome couple a months. I'll attempt to post sooner than months later next time...

Special Occasion Foundation

So....it was the boyfriend's birthday a few weeks ago and now I can finally ramble to you about what I got him.

Let me start from the beginning.

The boyfriend is a train nut, and a few years ago he started collecting motorcars. I've posted a few entries about them already, you can find them here: Nothing says romance quite like riding motorcars in Iowa, We ain't got no room for boring, and Some people bring spare parts, Popper Boy brings spare cars.

Or just Google "Fairmont Motorcar" - there are plenty of images online.

He not only collects them but he goes on organized runs with them all over the country. That's where those posts have come from as I went with him on a few in Iowa.

He's not the only one that collects them, in fact he's got a buddy who lives here who also has quite the selection.

So one day earlier this year his buddy decided he was going to sell a few to make some money. The first one that sold was the boyfriend's favorite. Apparently it's rare and has Nebraska history since it was delivered here originally. He also helped him rebuild it so when it sold he was heartbroken.

And bitter.

So bitter in fact that that's all I heard about for 6 months straight.

His buddy sold it to a guy in Oklahoma. The only problem is that the Oklahoman didn't have a trailer or a way to transport it. After a few unsuccessful attempts to come and get it he gave up and put it up for sale.

Keep in mind that this whole time it's still sitting in the boyfriend's buddy's garage.

The day that it went back onto the market the boyfriend mentioned it was for sale again and how much he still wanted it but didn't have the money for it at that time. I asked him if it was worth what he was selling it for and he said it was to him.

So, while he was on the phone with someone else, I Googled his buddy's number, called him and told him I was interested. He then put me in touch with the Oklahoman. The next day we worked out a deal and he said to send him a cashier's check.

Here's where all the work began.

I don't know about you all, but I've never dealt with cashier's checks at all so I had no idea what I was doing.

And what do you do when you have no idea what you're doing? You go to your mother cause she seems to know all.

Or at least that's what I did and luckily she did know what to do. We went to the bank, told the clerk the story, and she hooked me up with a cashier's check which I mailed to the Oklahoman.

After which I called the boyfriend's buddy and he said he would store it for me until December. A few days later I got a confirmation call from the Oklahoman saying he had received the check and it was officially mine.

Now the question was how do we keep this a secret? When I contacted the Oklahoman I told him who I was buying it for. He said that if anyone by that name called he would play dumb. Then I talked to the boyfriend's buddy who said that he would "let it slip" that the Oklahoman decided to sell it to a friend of his who would be out to pick it up in the spring. That way if the boyfriend saw that it was still in his garage he would have an excuse.

This is all fine and dandy but you have to remember that he was very passionate about this car AND it was only October with his birthday not 'til December.

When he learned it was sold he was heartbroken yet again, fearing someone would tear it apart, paint it the wrong color and all that. He was so passionate about it that he got mad at the Oklahoman who was (unbeknownst to me) supposed to call him if someone attempted to buy it. So that was kind of my fault. And since he was so passionate I got to hear all about it. Which was fun, as long as I could keep a straight face.

Two and a half months of straight faces - do you know how hard that is when you're this excited about something?

So fast forward a bit to the beginning of December. After playing phone tag for a few days I finally went over to the buddy's house to see the motorcar. He told me a bit of the history of it and asked if I wanted the key. Me, being the idiot that I am, assumed it would be you know like a normal key. No.

See that big black thing?


























That's the key. Well, safety starter.

He also gave me the paperwork to wrap up. Just by the way, paperwork is a lot easier to wrap than a giant key. That took three of us. I should have taken pictures, it was hilarious.

Meanwhile the boyfriend is trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas and wants to know how much I spent on his gift. (This was his birthday/Christmas gift since they're so close together.) As it was a very specific number I couldn't tell him cause he'd know so I became quite secretive. That made him more curious and he started constantly guessing what it was. Luckily he was always way off...until the morning of his birthday.

Up until then I had him convinced it was a trip cause every time he would ask if it was one I would change the subject. I got some family to help out too - at Thanksgiving Oldest Sister said something to the effect of "shouldn't you have asked him about vacation time before planning something like that?" Thanks for that by the way.

But, for some reason, the morning of his birthday he guessed it. So I lied. Cause I wanted it to be a surprise.

Though, as his mother pointed out, he lied last year about Vegas so I don't feel so bad.

Then he thought it was something from the model train shop and I just let him think he was right. Cause I wanted it to be a surprise.

Flash forward to after work, he and his family were coming up to eat out for his birthday. With the key and paperwork in my car, I was driving around to find parking when I got a call saying to park in a specific parking garage. He was already there so he got to carry the key in - of course to him it was just a giant box. Not really heavy, just awkward to transport.

After the meal - Cajun food, I had catfish - he got to open his presents. We saved mine for last. Here's his reaction. Sorry it's sideways.

The answer to her question is ME! He sold it to me!

Glad I taped it. I've watched it quite a few times.

He was very excited about it and immediately went into total sweetheart mode, taking me out for lunch the next day, then a movie that weekend, then coming up to visit me on a Sunday even though he had like 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours.

His response was to get me an ipod for Christmas. And not just an iPod, a 64 gig iPod cause my 32 gig is out of space. And old. And skips. And doesn't work with most apps. For those of you that know me you know how excited I was about the 64 since I have my iPod on me at all times. Also with the iPod he got me a bluetooth hookup for my car so that I can listen to it and also make handsfree calls. I was stoked. No more wires to mess with and all that. He even said he'd install it. So lucky to have a mechanic for a boyfriend. Changes my oil, fixes broken things and installs new fancy stuff. Very exciting.

He gave me that on Christmas Eve - that's when their family does Christmas. I had to work until 1 but went out there in the afternoon. They were playing Star Wars Monopoly by the time I got there and were getting pretty into it. It was entertaining to watch.

Christmas Eve is pretty relaxed with their family. They hang out all day, go to church, then eat supper and open presents. I got some other cool stuff from his family. They know how much I love Star Wars so I got a giant Yoda stuffed animal, an R2D2 candy jar, and then also some Husker stuff and a Fitbit which I'm wearing right now. Loving it. For those of you who don't know a Fitbit is something you wear around your wrist and it keeps track of how much you walk, how much you sleep, and the app helps you keep track of calories and all that.

Which is helpful because I'm about to make an even bigger lifestyle change.

Every year I say that one of my resolutions is to be healthier and then a week in I give up on it. This year is different. I have a game plan and support to go with it (see previous entries about our Hot Babes Getting Hotter weight loss plan). This week I cleaned out my fridge and cupboards getting rid of all the junk and filled it with newer and healthier options. Similar to how I gave up pop - I just took it away and didn't make it an option which made it much easier. I've also started packing my lunch with this new food. Gives me a chance to use my Slytherin lunch box from Christmas like 5 years ago.

Lost two pounds already. May not seem like a lot but it's only been a few days.

This lifestyle change is coming quickly after yet another one from about a month ago.

The boyfriend mentioned something about how I look nice in makeup and how maybe I should do that more often. When I mentioned it to my sisters the oldest responded with "if the guy that has to stare at you for the rest of your life says put on some makeup then put on some damn makeup" or something to that effect. Though she's been on me about it for years so I'm sure she was delighted.

So makeup wearing led to new clothes shopping which both of my sisters were happy to take part in. We hit up the Buckle, Dress Barn, and Famous Footwear for clothes and shoes. I came out with some new jeans, shirts, and two pairs of boots.

The people at work of course noticed right away, and ever since I've had many makeup/clothing conversations with my female coworkers. My favorite was with the New Girl and one of my new trainees. They were talking about foundation and one of them says she has some fancy stuff that she only pulls out on special occasions so we started calling it her Special Occasion Foundation. It was highly entertaining.


Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, let's back up a bit back to Christmas. So Christmas morning I did with my parents. I got them a lot of stuff this year - especially Mom - cause they always give a lot of stuff. But they only got half of the stuff cause we saved most of our stuff for our family Christmas on New Years. After Christmas morning with them I went to the boyfriend's extended family Christmas where we ate, watched TV and played Rummy. First time for everything, and it was actually quite fun. Then that night the boyfriend and I went out to my parents and ate supper with them. Then we watched some holiday movies like Home Alone and Christmas with the Kranks.

Along with the original/animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas I think Home Alone is probably my favorite holiday movie. It's a classic, both funny and entertaining. When I was young and would watch it my dad would make me pause it and come get him when it came to the breaking in/pranks scene toward the end. That's probably the best part.

So that was Christmas, let's skip to New Years Eve. I don't know about you but to me New Years Eve seemed a lot more exciting when I was younger compared to now. Every year for like 15 years I would do the same thing. Hang out with P Squared watching all the countdown music shows, playing Dance Dance Revolution and cards, running around the house at midnight while drinking sparkling cider and then watching movies before crashing on the floor. Now it's like I feel so old because I don't know half of the bands that are playing.

Or I don't like half the bands that are playing.

For the past couple years the boyfriend and I have done the same thing. Stayed at home and were disappointed by the music - although this year we did watch The Lego Movie which was highly entertaining.

Gonna have to come up with a different game plan for next year cause I'm doubtful the music thing is gonna change.

Must just come with getting older, most of the bands are aimed at teens not adults.

So that was New Years Eve, after midnight I headed out to the farmhouse and stayed over so I was there for our family Christmas the next day.

Christmas was fun. The family got there around 12:30ish. We ate prime rib, potatoes, desert and all that then opened presents. I got some cool stuff - Firefly Clue (i love that show, now have to find other fans to play with me), a couple of Husker hats, some new dishes, pajamas and of course a straightener from my sister. Remember the lifestyle change mentioned above? Apparently a straightener is necessary to complete it. We'll see about that.

The boyfriend got a lot of tools plus a signed hockey jersey courtesy of my parents (via me).

After food and presents there was a lot of football. Then napping and more food. Then more napping. Then more football. The boyfriend slept for a bit cause he was going into work that night.

All-in-all it was a good holiday season.


Immediately after the holiday season is our anniversary on the 2nd. 3 years. Doesn't feel like it was that long ago, but apparently it was. To celebrate we went to a hockey game where we won 3-2, then we watched some Forensic Files which has become our go-to show. Have you seen it? It's addicting. The hockey game was exciting enough, I don't think I've seen that many brawls in a single game ever. Tons of fighting and lots of penalties. It's like they knew it was a special occasion.

Or it's cause we were suppose to "turn a corner" after the holiday break and start winning games.

And speaking of winning games we played a hell of a game last night against our rivals and won it in overtime! It was huge game - not only because of they're our rivals but also because they were on a 9 game win streak. This was another one filled with brawls and by the end there were a lot of guys sidelined either in the penalty box or thrown out. Luckily a lot were able to come back for overtime. It was tied 2-2 for a while but then they went up 4-2. I thought we were toast but we scored and then we scored again with 2 minutes remaining. The guy that scored that one was playing his first game with us - he also had an assist - so pretty good for a new guy. Glad we acquired him.

Then for overtime we put in who I like to call either the 3 Musketeers or the 3 Amigos - Hoff, Gillespie, and Jozefek (who's my favorite). These guys can score when they're put together, honestly it's crazy how many times the three of them work together for goals. Hoff was able to shoot one passed the goalie and we took the victory. It was epic. I tweeted about it and it got favorited by all 3 Musketeers/Amigos and the general manager.

I love hockey, you meet the most interesting people while watching it. On one side you've got the drunken frat boys, on the other a redneck and behind us we have some awesome commentators and an archaeologist.

In Nebraska.

I made a friend. Ran into her in Walgreens and we started talking. Mostly about hockey. We ended up moving and sitting next to her during the game because it was packed and behind us it was empty. After the game we talked some more and now we're gonna do lunch. Turns out she works just a block over. Should be fun.


And last but not least....remember that whole patron having a stroke in the library thing? If not go here: I would shoulder a 12-year-old for you, that's love.

And then after that how Superwoman nominated me for a Customer Service Award? Go here: Hot babes getting hotter: You'll see less of us soon.

Well, turns out she nominated me for something else. A Mayor's Award of Excellence. And I got it.

Just have to meet the mayor and city council and not make a fool out of myself - no pressure.

Plus I'm horrified of public speaking and I guess I'm supposed to possibly say something in front of them. I think I have an idea of what to say, now it's just memorizing it and running through it over and over so I don't completely freeze and make a fool out of myself.

No pressure.



On to a Scale of Awesome's:

Serial

That's right, my first Scale of Awesome for a podcast. I actually learned about this from the parody skit on SNL. So I listened to all 12 episodes over the New Year's weekend (aka our family Christmas). It worked well because I did a crapton of driving so there was plenty of time to listen. I got so caught up in it that I was listening to it before I went to bed at night and then again in the morning when I woke up. My only thing against it was that it didn't really have the ending that I was looking for. I wanted to know if he was guilty or innocent and she didn't have an answer to that. Maybe they'll cover it in the second season which starts up soon. Scale of Awesome says 8/10.


Night at the Museum 3

Scale of Awesome says 8/10. I thought it was pretty good - very funny and since I'm an ancient Egypt nut I loved that aspect. Sad to see Robin Williams in it though knowing he's not around anymore.


Unbroken

Good movie but super long. Or at least it felt that way. Scale of Awesome says 7/10.


Tropic Thunder

If it wasn't for Robert Downey Jr. this movie would be awful. Fortunately he was in it and was fantastic so I'm giving it a 7/10.


The Departed


I think I watched this one a while ago with Mom back when we had Netflix but I don't remember anything about it. The one thing I will say about it now is it's long. Like you think it's about to be over and then it's not. And then it's still not. And then it's 2 hours later and he has to go to work so we have to finish it next time. It was okay I guess. I mean I like the people in it - Leo, Matt Damon, Marky Mark and Jack of course. I'd say 5/10 maybe?



And on to the music.

Dedication To My Ex - Lloyd


loving this song, very catchy. yes that's wayne brady.


Wasted Love - Matt McAndrew


was very surprised he didn't pull off the win, but craig was good too.

Some people bring spare parts, Popper Boy brings spare cars...

Have lots to post about so I’ll attempt to do them in order.

4th of July is my favorite holiday. Though when my sister told that to my nephew his quick-witted response was "you like it more than Jesus' birth?!"

Did I mention he's only a 3rd grader?

Anyway, for the 4th - my family goes all out. Even my dad gets into it with his lanterns and cherry bombs.

Don’t ask. There’s a lot of family legends involving those particular fireworks.

Anyway, we did tons of parachutes, sparklers, fountains, artillery shells, snakes, crackling balls, and ground blooms and yet I still have leftovers. Except for smoke bombs I’m out of those. Turns out my godson and niece are pyros and blew through two boxes in a single afternoon.

Not bags.

Boxes of those bags.

Apparently they take after me. Even Bex never matches her socks, I’m so proud.

Anyway, after all the gunpowder and glory – and I say glory because one of the neighbors set off a huge firework down the street and my nephew's quick-witted response (yes, same nephew) was “That sounds like glory!” – I had an interesting journey back to my apartment.

So imagine this, you’re driving down the interstate. It’s like 11:00 PM. Pitch dark. You see two trucks in a row going slow and decide to pass them. Mid-pass of the back truck you look over and see a turn signal flashing. Suddenly said truck is pulling into your lane.

That was my adventure on the way home from fireworks. Needless to say I swerved into the median to avoid him, then swerved back to avoid a reflector pole.

So maybe those Defensive Driving courses (aka the 2 STOP classes I’ve taken) were actually worth something.

Had to call the boyfriend at work who then made me get it checked out the next day. Thankfully there was just some grass and mud underneath so they didn’t even charge me. Though it did make me hesitant to drive for a while.

After the 4th came our Motorcar Adventure in Centerville, Iowa. It was supposed to rain all weekend but somehow it contained itself and only ended up pouring Saturday night after we were done.

The boyfriend doesn’t have air conditioning in his box van so we left early Friday. Ended up riding Friday night, then most of the day Saturday and again Sunday morning and afternoon.

It was a lot of fun. Minus the heat that is. 85 degrees may not sound so bad when compared to 90’s, however when you’re out in the sun with no shade or breeze it gets hot fast. Thankfully when we were moving you didn’t notice.

For some reason something always goes wrong when I’m riding with him and his car started acting up. Luckily he had a second in the van so we switched them out. And then got crap for it.

According to his motorcar buddies, apparently, “some people bring spare parts, Popper Boy brings spare cars.”

Don’t ask about the nickname. It’s a long story. And it's spread. I'm apparently now Popper Gal. Or Popper Girl. I get to choose.

I was bummed because one of his buddies didn’t make it there. Actually I think that’s the one that so lovingly dubbed his as Popper Boy. He’s the one making us plan our wedding around his schedule.

Jokingly. I hope.

After the ride this guy sent the boyfriend a picture of a billboard for a jewelry company. It had a picture of a ring with the subtitle: Your Girlfriend Wants Me.

I told him I approved.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our Motorcar Excursion.









and of the lineup


Yay for panoramas.

After all that fun the boyfriend and I hit up the Paul McCartney concert. We’re both huge Beatles fans and even though it was semi-expensive (although really not all that bad) we figured 1. He’s getting older and how many more tours is he going to go on. 2. He’s not from the states. And 3. When is he going to come here again? Chicago or Denver perhaps but not here. So we went for it.

It was excellent. He played for 2 and a half hours before taking a break. Not bad for a 72-year-old, who by the way, still doesn’t look a day over 50. He had an excellent lineup including his Beatles stuff, his Wings stuff, and a bit of his New stuff. He joked he can tell which songs people want to hear because when the classics start playing all the cameras go up but when the new stuff starts playing they go back down.

After playing for that long he came back for not one, but two encores saying something to the effect of, “you know I have to go home sometime…” But he was excellent, lots of Husker and Nebraska references which were amusing. Played most of my favorite songs, and the boyfriend and I really enjoyed it.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from that:









On to the music:

Gotta go with Paul on this one.

Silly Love Songs - Paul McCartney & Wings


The boyfriend was disappointed cause apparently this is his favorite McCartney song. I told him it could be our first dance song, but he’s stuck on that stalker song by The Police and envisions our wedding party following us around with binoculars and cameras. Which would actually be highly entertaining.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about try actually listening to the lyrics to this song:

Every Breath You Take – The Police


Back to the actual Rec’s

Yesterday - The Beatles


He waited 'til the encores to play that one so we knew he was coming back...

Extended Rec’s

Whilst motorcarring I had my own playlist on repeat that consisted of a ton of Lily Allen. I bought her new album before we left. Here's my favorite from the new album:

As Long As I Got You - Lily Allen


Love it.

I was so proud the boyfriend actually knew who she was. Or one of her songs at least. It’s kind of a big deal to me as she holds the number three spot on my list of favorite artists of all time and no one here knows her. For those of you wondering it goes:

1. Maroon 5
2. She & Him
3. Lily Allen
4. The Wreckers
5. Eminem

Yes, I’m aware it’s a random lineup.

But if you were to change it to current radio it would become:

1. Maroon 5
2. She & Him
3. Lily Allen
4. Karmin
5. Is up for debate. Maybe Cassadee Pope.

Because The Wreckers haven't come up with anything since I was in college and I don't like Em's new stuff.

Sorry.

Have you heard Weird Al’s new song Word Crimes? I feel like it could be my new theme song.



Only online for a week and it's almost at 10 million views...

Alright, that’s all I got. Next up will be camp stuff which always comes with lots of stories to post about. Hope you have a rockin’ week.

We ain't got no room for boring

For boring we ain't got no room.

Told you I'd be back.

So, this weekend was Motorcar-ing with the Boyfriend in Iowa: Take Two.

I don't know what my boyfriend's fascination is with Muppets and Motorcar-ing but apparently it's a thing.

Remember last year when we went and he kept singing Mahna Mahna?

Like literally, we're riding and we've got headphones on and all the sudden "mahna mahna...doo doo, doo doo doo..."

So this year it was "We ain't got no room for boring, for boring we ain't got no room."

Over and over.

Which, if you watch any TV whatsoever, you have probably seen at least twice in the past month.

If not, watch this.



Congratulations, you are now cultured.

There are actually multiple, but that's the most recent.

It's catchy. So much so that it was repeated...over and over...all over Iowa.

But it's true. We ain't got no room for boring.

And it's ironic because after I showed the Old New Guy a picture of what we'd be riding on his exact words were, "well, you'll never be bored with him."

And I don't think I ever will.

That said, this weekend was awesome. We always have fun when we go anywhere together, but he gets especially excited if it has anything to do with riding rails - whether it be motorcars or roller coasters.

It was definitely worth the drive, though our first run didn't go as planned. About quarter down the track the battery died and we had to get towed 'til it was replaced. Luckily it was an easy fix and we were back on by the afternoon.

It was nice cause it was a shorter ride so we could jump back in. If it was a day trip we would have been screwed.

I was grateful cause Donny came with so I wasn't the only woman there. She's always fun to jam with and it's so funny because men think that women talk a lot but apparently they've never met railroad men - who talk far more than anyone else on the planet. While us two women were just ready to ride.

And of course the boyfriend is the young gun that everyone has to tease and all that. Yeah, I think the average age for riders was probably mid-60's. So that means I get teased. I got called the "mrs" a few times and just smiled.

Another conversation we've been having a lot lately. Which is his fault cause he brought up ring shopping.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Here are a few of my favorite moments and some pictures to go along with.

-Walmart, the other hotel in town
::Let's just say a certain rider decided that he and his girlfriend didn't need a hotel room to stay in the first night cause Walmart parking lots are free and comfortable. Grateful that man wasn't my boyfriend. But I guess it would be sort of an adventure. That's how his girlfriend took it....so understanding.

-Big Rocks
::What is it with Iowans and the big rocks in their front yards? And when I say big I mean big. Like look at this.

And it wasn't just the one house. They were everywhere.

Any ideas? I'm wondering if they're actually decorative or if it's more like a giant rock monster died in their front lawn and they were too lazy to move them, though it's been added that they're also a deterrent to zombies so perhaps that's part of it.

-Breakdown
::While the breakdown itself was not enjoyable, the conversation that followed was. He taught me all about motorcar engines and how they work. I feel highly educated and could maybe repeat like a third of it...cause it was all technical. But I'll look smart when I do it... if you know nothing about engines. At all.

-Where are the face trees? 
::Yes, that is the technical term. I tried to take different pictures than last year but it's hard cause it's the same track. I did, however, have to take more pictures of the face trees cause they are super cool.




-Crash Boom
::So the day was awesome and after everything was loaded into the backs of trailers and trucks everyone was just kind of standing around and talking when all the sudden, *squeal* *boom* *thunk, thunk* Some idiot driver hit a pole right next to the station. We're thinking drinking was involved. They tried to drive away but couldn't so they just sat there for a while before the cops showed up (whom we called btw). We drove by the next day to see the marks and there was a big dent in the pole and tire tracks all over the grass.

Smooth.

So, we went out with a bang.

Here are more fun pics:



the line up.



picture of a picture of a picture of a picture...



around the curve.



bridge 1.



bridge 2.



no idea what that means. any translators in the house?

If you want to see more pictures from the route see last year's post here. Or check Facebook.

And that was Iowa. After we came back we did even more train stuff when we toured the historic Amtrak train at the Haymarket. Then got some lunch and he crashed on my couch for a few hours before he had to head into work.

I went in today and got grilled. They're jealous.

Plus I got Fun Dip. So I'm at the desk and Superwoman is like, the AD wants to see you. So I go upstairs dragging my feet, thinking I'm gonna get yelled at and she hands me a box of Fun Dip and says "I hear you like these." "Yep." "Okay. That's all."

Thanks.

It reminded me of the home branch when Space Cadet came up to me all straight-faced and was like "I have a question for you."
"Okay."
"Do you like 7-up?"
I was all freaked I did something wrong. "You looked all serious!"
"I am serious, I gotta get rid of this 7-up!"

Also, remember how I was writing two different program proposals for work? I finally said "screw it" and combined them. Perhaps it'll actually get approved if I put forth all my effort on one project instead of worrying about dividing it up into two.

But baby steps. Gotta polish the proposal first. Then comes the approval process.

Alright, on to the music.

Tonight's rec is pretty recent.

Me and My Broken Heart - Rixton


Another British invasion. I think they're kind of One Direction wanna-bees, but it's a good song.

However, the first time I listened to it it drove me nuts cause it sounded exactly like something else. And it has for weeks so I finally gave up and googled it and came across these two.

What do you think?

Lonely No More - Rob Thomas



Unfaithful - Rihanna


Feels a bit like a mix of both.

Ah, apparently Rob Thomas helped write it.

Well that explains it. But not the Rihanna part.

Alright, I'm out.

Will hopefully be back at some point this week.

Let's go places.

Maybe I'll break hearts and be as fast as you.

I'm back.

So....Easter.

I was bit of a Debbie Downer.

Actually that's an understatement.

And over-used, let's try Pessimistic Patty.

Melancholy Melissa.

Somber Sandra.

Bereaved Brenda.

Dismal Denise.

I could do this all day.

Weepy Wendy. Oo, I like that.

I was a bit of a Weepy Wendy - scratch that - I was a lot of a Weepy Wendy.

Which, apparently, isn't very festive.

Especially when surrounded by family.

I've lost all self-confidence.

Usually I'm good with the fake it 'til you make it - especially at work, but I had no energy so it didn't work out so well.

I don't even know what happened, but for like the last few months I'm just not me.

No faith in my abilities whatsoever, gave up writing, stopped hanging out and corresponding with friends outside of the boyfriend and work - just not me.

Coincidentally the start of all that happened about the same time I gave up the blog.

Well, not gave up, but let go. I went from posting every day to posting twice a month and now look at me.

Must have some correlation so, as a step toward more self-confidence, the blog is back.

Probably not full-force posting every night, but every few nights would be good.

Though it also coincided with me giving up pop so perhaps that's a factor as well.

Eh, we'll go with the blog. I miss the blog.

It's a step.

That aside, Easter was excellent.

Church was good - I did actually break out into laughter in the middle of the sermon because I was all Weepy Wendy and I look down at the bulletin and right on the cover in big capital letters it says "WHY ARE YOU CRYING?"

Hmmm...it's like he knew.

Anyway, excellent food, fun with family, enjoyed the mad storm that took place the second my dad yelled "go!" so the kids could find the eggs.

It was ridiculous, we were playing baseball all afternoon and it was perfect out. Then we decide to the do the egg hunt and suddenly WOOSH major wind. And then the second they find all the eggs it starts to rain.

So I guess it could have been worse.

I got my token snickers bar.

King size.

And a cadbury.

So I was good.

That's part of hiding the eggs, you know where to find all the good stuff so you know exactly where to head when he yells go.

We used to hide all the good stuff in the mailbox but we were confined to the backyard while the frontyard was being hijacked by all the baseball.

But it worked. Same as every year by the end we were just walking and dropping eggs on the ground cause we ran out of spaces to put them.

That's the joy of my family - far too much candy. Didn't really matter though, with all that wind everything ended up on the ground anyway.

And speaking of the ground - I mowed the day before and you know how like, when you mow or you're driving or whatever you kind of zone out and go into your own world? I'm like jamming in my headphones, trying not to be Weepy Wendy and all the sudden the ground starts moving ahead of me and I look and there were like freakin' six snakes in front of me.

Needless to say I screamed a bit.

And then ran over them a few times just to make sure they were dead.

Second Sister said she would have paid to see that footage.

Thanks for the moral support.

But it worked, I didn't see any at all on Easter.

After all the family fun I stopped by to see the boyfriend who's prepping the motorcar for our trip.

Did I mention we're going motorcar-ing again?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about - which most of you won't and don't feel bad because 2 and a half years ago I would have been right there with you - go here: Nothing says romance quite like riding motorcars in Iowa.

Yes, we ride in them on the railroad tracks. No, we won't get run over by trains - they book the tracks ahead of time.

And it's like a big thing now. They're basically retro railroad inspection cars which the railroad crew would ride in when they needed to go and fix the trains. Now they've been replaced by those pickups with the rail wheels, but there are still plenty of these around hiding in garages and all that.

So much so in fact that railroads host these organized runs all over the place and people line up to ride theirs down the tracks.

My boyfriend being one of them.

Me, being the supportive girlfriend that I am, decided to go with him on one last year. And...it actually wasn't that bad.

Not something I'd do every weekend like he would if he got the chance, but every once in a while would be fun.

Hey, it's not like trains are an unfamiliar concept to me. Did you see the house I grew up in or the model train layouts that my dad used to drive everywhere?

Anyway, we're headed back to Iowa soon to the same tracks. I'll attempt to take new pictures.

What else?

Oh, we finally finished the Matrix Trilogy.



Scale of Awesome puts this one at around a 7/10. Good, but not as good as the first of the series. And the ending made me sad.

What else?

Well, there's today.

I decided that today was gonna be rockstar awesome and it actually turned out to be.

Started off with a call from the doc. I got my blood tested last week and passed with flying colors.

Apparently she's jealous of my cholesterol levels....which is something to cheer about I guess?

Also I talked to Superwoman today about something I had proposed in the past....and shot myself in the foot.

But in a good way. I think.

The Library Director - aka my boss's boss's boss - gave a presentation and she had these handouts that talked about branch statistics.

Apparently the average age of our branch is 26.

aka Me.

And I think it's weird that we don't offer any programming for anyone of that age demographic.

I mean, we do have adult programs but the attendance is usually of the much older variety.

I tied that statement in with the fact that a bunch of teens are about to age out of TAB and want me to lead some sort of college-aged advisory board (but you can't call it that because then you're leaving out a key demographic so we're still working on a name).

The only problem is that if we did something of that sort it would be aimed more at the 18-24 demographic.

So, Superwoman assigned me the joyful task of coming up with not one but two different program proposals.

One for 18-24, the other for 25-30.

But, I got to pick my team the first time I asked about the TAB extension and I asked if they would be interested in helping again and they were all for it. Plus I added a new member - KT.

The thing about writing proposals is you have to pace yourself because if you use all your good stuff up in the first one, you're screwed in the second one.

Which is why I'm grateful I have a team.

Sent draft proposals to them, hopefully they'll get a chance to look over them soon after which I'll forward them to Superwoman and then hopefully in the fall we can start.

But, nothings a done deal yet. However, I am passionate about both of these projects and I intend on following through.

And that was today.

Well, that and The Voice.

Tuesday = Elimination Night

Lost one of my top 20, but still looking strong.


Voice Top 20

Christina Grimmie - Adam

Bria Kelly - Usher

Sisaundra Lewis - Blake 

Dawn and Hawkes - Adam - eliminated in second battles

Brothers Walker - Usher - eliminated in battles

Cierra Mickens - Shakira - lost to Emily, stolen by Usher - eliminated in second battles
Clarissa Serna - Shakira - eliminated in second battles

Audra McLaughlin - Blake 

Cary Laine - Adam - eliminated in battles

TJ Wilkins - Usher - eliminated in live rounds

Alaska and Madi - Blake - eliminated in battles

Delvin Choice - Adam 

Ddendyl - Shakira - eliminated in second battles

Sam Behymer - Adam - eliminated in second battles

Paula Deanda - Blake - eliminated in battles

Kaleigh Glanton - Blake - eliminated in second battles

Jake Worthington - Blake

Madilyn Paige - Usher - eliminated in second battles

Emily B - Shakira - eliminated in second battles

Kat Perkins - Adam

Top three are still in it, but I'm secretly rooting for my number 20 - Kat Perkins.

Ultimate rock chick.

Reminds me so much of Jordis who was my pick for season two.

And follows me on Twitter.

Though so do Audra McLaughlin and Bria Kelly. Surprisingly nice people...

Anyway, check out this clip. Kat is mad wicked.

Magic Man


she's gonna go far.

Alright, time for songs of the day.

Sledgehammer - Team Adam


I love Team Adam this year. Christina's my number one and Kat's my underdog plus Delvin is excellent in his own right.

Plus huzzah! Peter Gabriel.

Aaaannnd another flashback - Song You Know But Forgot You Knew It

As Fast As You - Dwight Yoakam


i love this guy. he and george strait are the epitomy of classic country.

Alright, that's all I got. I'm gonna crash.


I'm back to Lie to Me. Only watched the episodes once the first time around and forgot who's guilty already so it works.

Nothing says romance quite like riding motorcars in Iowa.

So here's how I spent my weekend.



Riding motorcars in Iowa with the boyfriend.



Met a lot of cool people, these two were my favorites.



Steve is the boyfriend's good friend and his girlfriend is super nice. We talked a lot, was good to have another girl out there.

Surprisingly there were a few others as well. One brought cookies and lent me one of those cool reflector jackets when we went on the night run.

I was stylin'.

Here are some of my favorite shots and videos from the weekend:



The picture doesn't do it justice, but that's like 150 feet below us.

Here's a video.



No pressure whatsoever, right?



Only 150 feet.

That was actually only one of the bridges.

The other you can see here.


That part was my favorite.

Here are some other cool shots of some fun scenery.



some dude actually carved 3 of these, but only 2 of the trees are still standing.

jammed out on the tracks for a while so i took some nature shots.



gotta love creeks.

there was a lot of good scenery on this one.



My favorite part was probably the night ride.

And it was the boyfriend's as well, what he looked forward to all day really.



That is literally all you can see when you're on the bridge. AND THEN he turned the light off!!

Punk.

But I survived.

Downloaded an audio book on my iPod in case I got bored but didn't listen to a word of it. Just jammed to some music as we went.

No, it was a lot of fun.

And I think I did better than he thought I would.

Like the World's of Fun post here: The Difference Between If and When

Anyway, I had fun.

We left Friday night after work - I got off at 4, we took off around 5. He had it loaded onto a trailer behind a pickup. We listened to a variety of music on the way out there and back but there were a lot of repeats. I lost count how many times we heard "It Will Rain", "Daylight", "Drive-by", anything by Taylor Swift and that stupid don't you worry, don't you worry song.

Another thing we have in common, hatred for Swedish House Mafia.

They had some weird commercials in Iowa, what's a "naked burrito bar"?

Stopped at Culver's for supper and rolled into Boone at about 10:30.

Woke up at 6:30 AM.

The boyfriend made me a waffle.

He thinks it's funny that I'm not a morning person.

Making fun of the fact that someone is not a morning person does not turn them into a morning person.

Headed over to the railroad soon after where I met Steve and Donnie.

He was hilarious and she was a Godsend.

Everyone there was really nice. They talked train jargon so fast I basically just kept my mouth shut. But I caught on eventually.

So we rode twice in the morning, took a break for lunch. We hit up a cafe with Steve and Donnie, got breakfast for lunch, gotta love it, then headed back for a couple more rides. After that we had to take a break cause they were running a dinner train through so we went out for ice cream then checked in at our hotel.

Oh yeah, we stayed at 2 different hotels cause everywhere was pretty booked up.

Then headed back for an evening run...which then led to a night run.

Super dark and super cool.

But there were only 2 of us by then. People tend to disappear after the morning run and then filtered out from there.

But the boyfriend likes when there are less people because then you can go faster.

Lot of hurry up and wait stuff.

Men are chatty.

Donnie and I laughed at that. They talk about women talking, they're the ones holding up traffic.

But it was amusing.

After the night run it was back to the hotel, slept in, stopped for lunch at Pizza Hut - listened to a woman describe in great detail the Kaley Cuoco car commercials - and back to Nebraska.

He headed home right away cause he went into work tonight.

Crazy.

And I should really crash cause I'm exhausted so I'll hit you with some quotes and then I'm out.

Quotes of the Trip:

The boyfriend: You can't drive like a nice guy when you live in a big city. You have to fit in with everyone else and drive like a jerk. 
aw, he's so nice.

The boyfriend: Who doesn't know Mahna Mahna?
he did a lot of Mahna Mahna-ing whilst we rode. We had the headphones so we could actually hear each other. There were a few Airplane! references in there as well.

Steve: "Good" and "McDonald's" don't fit in a sentence together, it's an oxymoron. Unless it's a breakfast burrito or snackwrap. 
speaking of Oxymorons, we passed a Dodge Ram on the way home. Can you both Dodge and Ram at the same time?

All-in-all it was a good trip.

Except when I lost a ring.

One with a lot of memories behind it.

I know, what is it with me losing important stuff while on vacation with him?

So there goes my fake engagement ring.

Left a piece of myself in Boone Iowa, good god.

Told him he'd have to buy me a replacement.

We'll see about that.

Music and I'm out.

Nothing but the Taillights - Clint Black


song actually came up on my iPod during the night run. gotta love the irony cause really that's all we could see.

22 - Taylor Swift


cause i had already posted the other songs that played on repeat. aside from that freakin' SHM one.

never ever.

but see the 22 i'm used to listening to is lily allen's.


love her.

and just cause i think it's funny:

here's 32


it's driving me nuts cause i swear i know that blonde from something.




out.

she can't see the way your eyes light up when you smile.

Just got home.

Drove home safely, and didn't speed.

As opposed to what Queen of the Known Universe told Wordie today.

But I only have 1 point on my license.

Which I told him.

I neglected to tell him that it took me 2 stop classes to get it down to 1 point, but whatever.

Today was good.

Work went by super fast, staff meeting in the morning up on 3rd then lot of people around but not too many people. But it kept me busy.

After work I headed out to the boyfriend's. He changed the oil in my car. Such a nice boyfriend.

Minus a whole cereal sucks campaign.

He doesn't like it.

Which makes me sad because it is in my top 3 foods.

It goes chocolate, cereal and popsicles. After that it's all tacos, pizza, burgers, etc.

But he says he's not excited by cereal, like it's boring or something.

He's missing out.

So there was that.

Got his motorcar ready for this weekend's run.

Yes, the countdown continues.

Nothing says romance quite like riding motorcars in Iowa.

You probably won't hear from me for a while on here, but I'll post pictures and updates on Facebook.

Already got people questioning my health and now sanity for this trip.

But this way they'll know I'm still in one piece.

And, you know, breathing.

So that was my day.

Tomorrow is 9-4 and then we're off.

Yes, to the races.

They are called "speeders" afterall.

I'm sure I'll learn all about them by the end of the day.

Invisible - Taylor Swift


Nearly Witches - Panic at the Disco!

i know, i know, i just posted this like 3 months ago but i love it! you will all hate it, but i love it!

By the time I'm out the door, you tear me down like Roger Moore

Okay, to whoever got to my blog by searching for "dolly parton whorehouse stockings" I just have to say why?!

Why are you searching for that and why why WHY did that land you here?

So weird.

So the countdown 'til the motorcar trip continues.

Leaving Friday night and getting back Sunday.

Showed pictures of what we're riding in to the guard, she's jealous.

It'll be fun.

I hope.

No, I'm actually pretty excited.

Figuring out what to pack and all that is amusing. He says layers.

Gonna have to brush up on my train jargon.

Never thought I'd say that ever.

Especially after escaping them at the farmhouse.

Dad's obsessed with models, but the boyfriend is obsessed with the real thing.

Which is far more expensive.

But more lifelike so I guess that's okay.

Though one of dad's friends has one that's like a junior train and people ride in it at parades and stuff.

I was the cool kid cause I got to ride in the engine. Actually have a picture of me hanging out the side of it.

Back when I was young and cute.

I know, such a long time ago.

I would post it on here but then my coworkers would see it and then I'd be hosed.

Speaking of coworkers, tomorrow is food day for my Trainee's going away party.

I know, they're all leaving!!

Fearless Leader, Slim Shady now my Trainee. It's like all the people that were hired around the same time as me.

But Superwoman made me pinky promise that I wouldn't leave because of a boy.

Guess I'l be commuting.

Gonna have to remember to bring something this time, though I have no idea what.

Nutty bars or something of the like perhaps.

Oh, I have grapes.

That's healthy. Let's go with that.

So that's work tomorrow.

Well that and training a volunteer to shelve in Youth Services.

Work today was good. Super slow in the morning then a mad rush from like 2-5. Most of it being 3-4 which is when the New Girl and I were on the desk. It seems we are often paired together at that time and it's busy cause school gets out and then everyone has to stop at the library on the way home.

Gives me confidence that they think we can handle it on a regular basis.

Or maybe it was just a scheduling fluke.

Probably just a scheduling fluke.

What else? Oh, sent out an email about library golf asking for putters. If you have some or golf balls or anything that you think would make a good obstacle send it my way and I'll get it back to you soon after.

After work I went back to watching Blood Ties. Still on disc two but got distracted along the way.

So gonna get back to that. Or switch to DDD, see yesterday's post. See what I meant about getting distracted.

Carter's giving me the glare.

You know that "i can't sleep until you sleep so shutup and sleep."

Alright, I'm on it.

You know I'm no Good - Amy Winehouse


i know, i've posted this already.

but it's been a while.

and it's been stuck in my head all week. which i blame on Jess Kellner.

but it's one of those that i sing around the library.

well that, and this

whilst shutting things down at the end of the day or doing supply orders/summer reading stuff in the basement.

like how i used to sing george strait while shelving.

and then people notice.

and smile.

so i keep singing.


out!