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.

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.

Hyvenese = Chinese from Hyvee

Oh the lessons I learn from my coworkers. I've never had their Chinese, but their sushi isn't awful.

I mean, it's not good, but it's not awful.


How does one say goodbye to a friend of 14 years?

From the outside it may appear as if she was only my 7th and 8th grade teacher, but the reality is so much more.

Let’s start from the beginning.

You know how there’s always that one kid that’s better friends with their teacher than their classmates?

The nerd who gets all their jokes and hangs out with them at recess?

That was me.

I blame it on the fact that my siblings are way older than me so I get along better with people who are older.

G Wigger and I bonded over the TV show Friends – the first of many shows we bonded over – and it went from there. I used to write her notes and draw her pictures. I’m pretty sure I was the favorite cause she let me where sunglasses indoors. Again, nerd.

When asked about that later she responded “you have to pick your battles.”

She put up with my tantrums when it came to math – it was not my favorite subject – and even after school got out we stayed in touch. Jump forward a few years and you’ll hit where the nerd in me decided that Jim and I could take over Camp J – no problem. Ha!

We invaded her classroom almost daily for an entire summer cleaning out boxes, updating files, creating schedules, assigning counselors, stuffing lanyards, and then sorting t-shirts and sending out mailings. She called herself Camp J’s “number one fan” and helped out even though she avoided the actual camp like the plague.

It was during all this Camp J prep that 2G was formed.

Every year my old high school hosts a golf tournament as a fundraiser for the school. We decided – having no golf experience whatsoever – that we would start a team of our own and compete. The team was made up of Pastor (our leader and the only one with actual golf talent from the start), Jim O, G-Wigger and myself. We came up with the nicknames Blackstone, Dash Riprock, Homey G-Wigger, and Choot ‘em Lizbet, respectively.

Eventually we’d put those nicknames on bright orange t-shirts so you could see us at all times.



Though, we were told, you didn’t need to see us to know where we were cause we were the loudest ones there so you could hear us from across the course. But hey, our drinking team has a golfing problem – what can we say?

Two out of the four years we’ve competed I was unceremoniously thrown from the cart. Though that might have been partly my fault since I was leaning out to grab wayward golf balls.

Plus I had to save Bertha. Don’t ask.

But it was worth the bumps and bruises.

Golf isn’t the only sport 2G competes in. Softball is actually our specialty. We play scrappy but we dominate. Every game G-Wigger and I would warm up together and after every game we would stop for icecream.

We told her that since the golf tournament is in the summer that she should come back for it every year, however since softball games are usually on Sunday nights in the fall that won’t be an option.

Our team will never be the same.

Sports weren’t our only thing recently. We’d go to movies – see post “At least the baby stopped crying” – or out for jalapeno margaritas.

The adventures are so numerous she even has her own tag. "Homey G Wigger". And only my favorite people get their own tag.

So how does one say goodbye to someone who’s had such an impact on one’s life?

I could thank her I suppose. For sticking with me through the good times and the bad. Tell her how grateful I am for all the times she was there for me. Not just for math but for everything.

But I still feel like that that doesn’t begin to cover how much of an influence she’s had on my life.

So I’ve decided instead of goodbye, it’s just so long for now. We’re gonna pen pal it up. And it’s not the end. She’ll be back for big events – confirmations, golf, and a wedding if it ever happens.

And that makes it easier.




Okay, on to happier, less emotional things.

Took a trip out to Illinois to visit the BFF. Sketch and Edit’s Excellent Adventure. Take Two.

Or is it three? Whatever, either way it rocked.

Minus the 9 hour drive it took to get there, that is.

We jammed. Made camo cake.

Check it out.







Gotta have orange frosting with a camo cake. It actually tasted pretty good.

Other cooking adventures included booze popsicles. Looks like sherbet, tastes like vodka.

Holy crap those were strong. It probably had to do with the fact that it wasn't just vodka it was also mixed with tequila. Knocked us on our butts.

Non-cooking adventures were catching up on Grey's, and we watched a bit of Raising Hope.

Which I’d seen part of like one episode one time, so now of course I had to check out season one from the library. It’s actually quite entertaining.

And then of course we hit up the races cause her boyfriend has a car. Like in the races. With a driver. Who's pretty good. Got second in his heat, but then it got rained out. So we jammed in the trailer. See Facebook for pictures.

It was good to see her. It had been like a year. Or two. More like two.

That should change.



What else? The boyfriend and I are doing great. We’ve been going to a lot of races lately. We hit up the World of Outlaws the other day in Greenwood and my guy won! After I had bought his t-shirt. And it’s awesome, it’s like a pit crew shirt with all the advertisements on it.

Plus he signed it.

I was proud that I picked him and that I got the shirt before he won the race instead of after. Plus he beat the guy who always wins and you gotta root for underdogs.

Races aren’t the only fun things we’re going to, a few weeks ago we went to my sister-in-law’s surprise 40th birthday party. The surprise part being the event we dragged her to Omaha for. It was a Murder Mystery party at a hotel – professionally done, it was fun.

We all had to pick aliases. I was Regina Philange.

Make me proud people, make me proud.

Mom was Cher. Dad was John Wayne. After picking the killer’s name as his alias and being told it was already in use (but not told it was the killer) the boyfriend went with Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future.

I know, how does one pick the name of the killer out of the like 80 million names available? It was amusing.

The problem with their setup was that you had to be paying attention to nametags to figure out who-done-it cause the detectives who were supposed to be solving the crime did nothing but distract you. But that’s okay, we went for the fun of it and it was fun, even though I was forced to walk the cat walk to prove my innocence.

Long story.

This week we went fireworks shopping. And you know me with my fireworks. Hit up my mother ship. aka the Dorm Mom's stand. Got some good deals. I'm stoked!

After the 4th he and I are taking a trip to Iowa for another motorcar excursion so look forward to those highlights....

What else?

College World Series! My team won! Go Black Gold! The Cool Aunt was also for Vandy so anytime they did something good we’d text “black gold!” We saw them play live one of the years we went so that’s what we like them.

And speaking of a lot going on, I’ve been working tons on camp stuff. I’m getting excited, it’s coming up! Again this year we have more boys than girls but that may change since they have ‘til July 7th to turn everything in.

I'm really excited for my 7th and 8th graders skit. No HeeHaw this year but they're still singing. Don't worry, they won't hate this one.

And Smo is coming this year. I'm so excited! Gonna be my Skits and Worship helper. Which is good cause there will be lots...

Scale of Awesome’s for you:

Edge of Tomorrow


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. Interesting premise but not a huge fan of Tom Cruise.

Bowfinger


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. So horrible. Yet funny.

300


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. Am I the only person on this planet that didn't like this movie? I feel like it. It's only redeeming quality?



Gerard Butler. And the "This is Sparta" kick. That was badass.

On to the music:

Strong Enough - Cher


a month later and it's still in my head. awesomeness.

and one for an upcoming concert:

From Me To You - Beatles


so excited! debating what my favorite Beatles song is. this is one of many. Probably Hey Jude. Maybe Yesterday. Blackbird. Day Tripper. Paperback Writer. Hello Goodbye. Let it Be. Love Me Do. Yellow Submarine. She Loves You.

Too many good ones to choose from...

And I'm out. I promise it won't take me another month to post.

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.

Do I wanna know why there's a bra in the lost and found?

Happy Belated Women's Murder Club Day!!



Cheers!

I know. Fandom's still here. Get used to it.

We're not going anywhere.

Wow. So it's been a while.

I was thinking about attempting to do a week straight of posting and then I think...how did I used to do that every day? When did I sleep?

Never, really.

Though now I'm lame and go to bed at like 11 so....that needs to change.

We'll see.

Okay, so a lot to ramble about. Guess I'll try going in reverse order.

Today = Wednesday

Day off #1. I have tomorrow off too. I know, it's weird, but I'm loving it.

Not sure what to do with myself so I went running.

You can pick up your jaws, it actually happened. I need to start being healthier cause right now I am the opposite of that even though I have lost weight from giving up pop - though that wasn't the intention it was more to see if I could actually do it - and I also got a perfect score on my blood test.

Didn't even study, rock solid man.

But yeah, the exercising thing is long overdue. On Sunday I had half an hour lunch and work and of course nothing is open (and what was I wasn't motivated to go get) so I ate in the following order: Peanut M&M’s (breakfast), Cheeze Its, and Peanut Butter Crackers (lunch), and then Regular M&M’s (afternoon snack) all from the vending machine.

Our substitute supervisor was making fun of me. I was also in zombie mode that whole weekend so that didn't help.

And speaking of substitutes, the one she's substituting for - aka BossLady - is bailing on me for another branch.

I know.

Everyone my age leaves.

First it was Fearless Leader, then it was Slim Shady, now it's Boss Lady. Next it'll be the New Guy.

Just watch.

Not fair.

But it's okay. I've still got the Queen of the Known Universe there to keep me sane for the day-to-day stuff. Plus the Queen of Awesome is around - though not physically in the building.

Plus KT is a cool cat so it'll be fine. I'm sure.

But that begs the question....who's gonna be the new supervisor?

Someone from within or outside the system....hmmm.....

Stay tuned.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah, today, so went running, cleaned more of the apartment - aka did a bunch of laundry, dusted a bit, I'm putting off cleaning the kitchen. I think that's my least favorite part of cleaning. No idea why. Is that just me or do other people actually like cleaning their kitchen?

Got some groceries and that was that.

I was gonna watch the second Hobbit but I have yet to get around to it.

Plus I lack the motivation. I'm sorry, the first one was just so looooooooong!

But again, was comparing it the original trilogy, I need to think of it as its own separate entity. Then maybe I'll get through it without fast-forwarding.

Yesterday = Tuesday

Had a TAB meeting in the afternoon. We filmed the rest of Todd Sparkles (our web series) and almost caught an actual fist fight on camera. I'm telling you, it's never boring in the library.

Monday...okay so I don't remember the exact days the rest of this stuff went down but here are the highlights in reverse order.

There was Mother's Day. "Take a picture of me and my creme brulee."



Okay mom. Pretty sure that's her new favorite food. I love Bubby in that shot. I got her books on Alaska and paid for her supper. And then she got me and my brother presents cause apparently everyone else got gifts and she didn't want us to feel left out. Merry UnMother's Day. Kind of like Merry Unbirthday. I dig it. Yay socks!

As mentioned I was a total zombie this weekend cause I didn’t fall asleep until 3 one of the nights. I blame Mixology. I couldn’t sleep so I turned it on. Then I really couldn’t sleep. Yes, I know it got cancelled. Along with many others but I really didn’t watch any of the others so I’m okay with that. Except Trophy Wife. I did watch that. I love Malin Akerman. She’s da bomb.

Do people still say that? I lost all my street smarts when I became a librarian.

Perhaps I’ll pull out my skateboard and hit up the park down the road. Bond with some hooligans. Catch up on my lingo. Nothing could go wrong in that scenario, right? Hey, it's exercise!

Speaking of librarians, have I mentioned how much I love the blog Librarian Problems lately? It’s fantastically funny and completely true at the same time. Go here.

You get jewels like these:

A PATRON PROUDLY ANNOUNCES THAT HE ENJOYS READING BOOKS WHILE ON THE TOILET


And this:

AFTER HANDLING A STICKY BOOK


And this:

WHEN A PATRON BENDS OVER TO LOOK AT THE BOTTOM SHELF AND JUNK FALLS OUT


And this:

INVESTIGATING A PORN COMPLAINT


Oh yeah, it happens.

There’s also apparently a series on Hulu called The Librarians but I have yet to check it out.

Before that....oh remember on Halloween how my car headlight kept going out and turning back on? I got pulled over twice in one night for it? Well the blinking headlight is back and ticking me off. I knew something was wrong cause it was darker on the left than it was on the right so when I got home I left it on and noticed it was out again. Natural response? I kicked it and guess what! It started working.

Take that world.

Guess violence is the right answer in some situations – though I wouldn’t recommend it. Plus I don’t know how long it will last. The boyfriend took a look and attempted to fix it but the thing about my car is that just to get access to the light you’d have to take off the bumper and we were like ehhh…we’ll do it later. Since it keeps coming back - despite my handy dandy violent tendencies - I'm getting it checked out tomorrow.

What else?

Bubby’s Confirmation - myself, Second Sister, and my brother were all his sponsors so we were pretty proud. He knew all the answers cause he’s smart like that. I was having flashbacks to me having to answer those questions. I still know most of them. I was lucky cause when I did it there were like six of us, but when Second Sister got confirmed she was the only one so she got all the questions. We joked that because of our seating order we could predict what commandment we would get and would recite it over and over until he got to us. Or maybe that was just me. Anyway, we got him a bible and all that. Well, Second Sister bought it but it was from all of us. I got him candy, a table tennis set and cheeseballs.

Cause who wouldn't want cheeseballs for their confirmation? Oh and cash too, now he can buy more cheeseballs.

Before that was Bek’s dance recital. We go every year, she’s super cute. And of course the Men in Black performed at intermission again. They’re the dads who drop their kids off at dance class. I told my brother-in-love that I was thoroughly disappointed that he hasn’t joined in yet. We would totally be in support of that. Though we’d probably also film it and post it places so perhaps that’s why he won’t do it. He’s smart like that. This year’s theme was the circus so of course that meant the inclusion of Afro Circus which meant that was stuck in my head for the rest of the night. Week. Month. It still hasn’t gone away.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about watch this.



There. Catchy, right? For the first hour maybe. Then it’s just obnoxious.

Before all that was girls night with the Queen of Awesome. I am her loyal subject. We had Indian food – it was excellent, though I took half of it home. We talked of libraries and families and of course her tiny children, then she came to jam out at my apartment and met my fat cat.

And he didn't bite her! That's new. He must really like her.

That was the same day the Camp J website went LIVE!! Which means I’ve started getting registrations online – yay for less paperwork. This year we’re actually enforcing the end date for registrations and not accepting late ones which is so much less stressful for us because we’ll know the exact number of t-shirts to order instead of having to over order just in case of late signups. I can also do accurate cabin assignments and not have to worry about switching people around at the last minute AND I can write my skits in advance instead of the Thursday night before camp (which starts Friday at noon). Which is huge for me. The theme this year is Gracebook cause God would friend you. Gonna have to incorporate that into the skits somehow. Ideas?

Did I already ramble to you about the presentation for the stakeholders? For the Strategic Plan? KT and I were tasked with putting together a presentation on innovative library services and programming. We had help with the research and then had to present it to community stakeholders. Library Board President and Vice President included.

I hate public speaking, it is probably my number one fear. Above death and creepy crawly creatures. And people who actually liked the third Mummy movie. And the oncoming zombie apocalypse. Keep calm and flame on.

Anyway KT and I presented and I faked that all was okay until the day of when Superwoman realized the amount of my fear but made me do it anyway. And she said we did good and now wants us to do more stuff. I hope that was a joke cause that's not cool.

And speaking of more stuff at work, I got assigned Food Drive duty again. Yay? No, I'm excited, it's me and KT. I'm just not looking forward to driving big pickup trucks across town and not being able to see out my rearview mirror. And turning around in parking lots. And having to lug full barrels all over town. But other than that....it'll be fine.

Any suggestions for contests?  We did the sculptures and collecting loose change. I think it'd be fun to attempt to fill one of the supervisors offices with food. I'm sure that'd get nixed, but it would be something new and differetn.

That's what I got for highlights. Here are some Scale of Awesome entries for you. First up:

Mississippi Burning


That movie was wildly depressing, I can't believe that stuff actually happened. Scale of Awesome says 6/10, but I do love Gene Hackman.

Can’t Buy Me Love


Funny to see McDreamy playing a nerd. I didn't realize that Drive Me Crazy (Nick Cannon, Christina Milian) was based off that. Scale of Awesome says 8/10.

I was gonna have a full blown 80's movie marathon - have Footloose, Better off Dead, and Say Anything all checked out - but again, have yet to get to them.

Drive Me Crazy


Look familiar? Yes, didn't realize until about halfway through. Guess a lot of movies are based off that one.

Scale of Awesome 6/10. Not as good, but it had its moments.

I feel like there's more but I'm totally blanking. I'll add them later.

On to the music.

Begin Again – Taylor Swift


I know some people don't like her but I do. And I'm now officially in love with this song.

Paperback Writer - Beatles


oh...have I mentioned we got Paul McCartney tickets? Um yeah. Once in a lifetime thing that he's coming here and the boyfriend and I are huge Beatles fans so we went for it. I'm stoked. Debating what my favorite song of theirs is. It's like Sophie's Choice. Cause I like this one, Hey Jude obviously, Can't Buy Me Love, Love Me Do, Eight Days a Week, Hello Goodbye...there are too many good ones to decide.

Gonna have to brush up on my Wings music cause I'm pretty sure the only one that I know know is...

Live or Let Die


Looks pretty fun live, gonna be excellent.

And that's all I got. More adventures will follow I'm sure.


oh, for those of you still wondering about the title, stories could be written about the items in our lost and found. i'll leave it at that.

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.

I need you darling, come on set the tone. If you feel you're falling won't you let me know.

Big day.

Slept in - excellence - then hit up the annual Volunteer Recognition Banquet.

As the volunteer supervisor I got to go set up tables, welcome the volunteers, eat fancy food, listen to speeches, then take down and get paid for it.

Our set up only took a record setting 30 minutes so we had time to take fun pictures.



Stealing that picture from one of our many fabulous Sarah's.

We have a lot of Sarah's. And Julie's. And Pat's.

Granted I can't talk, there are two of me too.

We're a goofy bunch, but lots of fun.

The food was good, my kids had fun, we took lots of pictures, I'm calling it a success.

After which I cleaned my apartment - kitchen and bathroom included.

Not sure what to do with myself now, it's almost too clean.

Don't worry, that won't last.

Along the way I bought a bunch of fun new music for my iPod (this after buying over 100 songs for Dad this past weekend. Did I mention how it's all fun and games for us kids to buy him an iPod but when you're the only one around to download them... now I come home and he has lists for me. It's wildly amusing. He even calls when it's been a while to see when I'm coming home. He used to have lists of reality TV episodes I needed to watch, now it's downloading music.)

Anyway, I went Pentatonix crazy - I love iTunes, they have everything - and then, for fun, searched the top lists and ran into this one.

This post is actually just an excuse to post this song as its my new obsession. If you haven't heard it already listen to it now, it's fantastic.

Sing - Ed Sheeran


It only took about 30 times of listening to it before I realized how much it reminds me of my favorite Rolling Stones song. One that I've posted multiple times but will post again.

Miss You - Rolling Stones


Compare and contrast, ready, go.

Didn't hear it the first time, now I can't not hear it.

Now I'm off to watch the second Hobbit. Or perhaps I should save that and watch it with the boyfriend. We skipped seeing it in theaters. Having it on DVD means I can fast forward through the boring stuff.

An option I wish I had when we saw the first one in theaters.

Is that sad?

I think it's just because I liked the trilogy so much that my expectations were high and it fell short.

I can only imagine how I'll feel after the upcoming Star Wars movie. My love for that series nearly quadruples my love for any other movie series.

Except the Mummy series that is (minus the third of course, god that was awful). And Charlie's Angels but there's only two of those. And Harry Potter. And the Hunger Games.

Maybe only triple of the Die Hard series. And the Marvel series. But other than that....

Did I mention I liked sequels?

That's all I got. Have a rockstar weekend.

Keep calm and flame on.

I know I said I was gonna post more last week but then I got sick so...that didn't happen.

101.6 fever, for real people.

Okay, so what did you miss?

Made more progress on the zombie apocalypse. (scroll down if you're lost)

Queen of the Known Universe has joined my army of misfit toys. She has volunteered to build a flamethrower.

Screw Amazon, we'll build our own using car mufflers and a welder.

Keep Calm and Flame On.

She's also graciously volunteered to be our fire department liaison. I know, such a sacrifice for someone doesn't like firefighters at all...that was sarcasm.

Have you seen her Firemen Fridays section of Facebook?

The Old New Guy said he'd man the tablesaw, and when I asked our newest staff addition - who tragically doesn't have a nickname, but I'm on it - what skills would make us want her on our team she replied she watches a lot of Survivor and she's good at assembling Ikea furniture.

So I'm putting her on the mechanical and logistics squads. She can help us plan and build an endgame.

Still gotta talk to the rest of our merry band at the work branch, I'll keep you posted.

I also continue to eat lunch with the Queen of the Known Universe in the basement facing the empty screen. It's basically like an white board but with our position it looks like we're at a theater or something.

Now we say "down in front" to anyone who walks past while we're eating. Even though there's nothing on the screen.

What else?

Life Size Game Day was a big hit. Had 10 of my TAB kids plus one of their friends come and play life size angry birds, candyland and scrabble, it was awesome.

Here are some pics of our epic layout.









Big thanks to the New Guy for his help. We got pretty into the design, as you can tell.

What else?

Went to Bubby's play. He was Moses. Got to rap, it was amusing.

They had a silent auction beforehand made up of random donations and then you bid and the profits go to the school.

Here was one of the items...



I was like, oh good god.

And then mom bid on it.

But only once and then she got beat out.

Although it would have made an interesting addition to dad's cabin decor.

I did finally see the boyfriend this weekend. That's how I got sick, cause he had it, well, has it. Interestingly enough our doctors diagnosed us with two different things. Granted mine was in a rush to get me out of there so his was probably right.

But when I saw him we watched the second Matrix...what is that one Reloaded? Right?



Scale of Awesome says 7/10. Was good but not as good as the first. Just the third one left.

And that's basically it.

I know.

But I was sick.

So I slept a lot, and then when I couldn't sleep I watched Iron Man, then Thor, then Captain America, then the Avengers.

Did I mention I was out for three days?

I skipped a few in the series (Hulk and Iron Man 2) but I really don't like the Hulk (except if they made one with Mark Ruffalo I'd probably watch it) and then I figured Iron Man 1 was good enough to get me started.

Which Hulk movie do they claim anyway? Cause there were two within a few years of each other. Edward Norton and Eric Bana.

Bana was 2003, Norton was I think 2008. Hmmm... will have to look into that.

Finally watching Anna Kendrick on SNL. Very amusing so far. I love how many of the sketches are put on in song. But it's Anna Kendrick so you have to make her sing.

And speaking of singing....on to the music.

What was that segment called? Songs You Should Know?

Or Why Don't People Know This Song?

Or something like that, you get my point.

Here are a few more of those. Give them a chance, they are wicked awesome.

16 Military Wives - Decemberists


cheer them on to their rivals...

Since You've Been Gone - Theory of a Deadman


this was my first ever music rec on this blog and it's still one of my favorite songs.

We Used To Be Friends - Dandy Warhols


*clap* *clap*

and that's all I got.

More to come later.

"The deaf guy's right, you are a nice lady."

Holy crap I hit the 100,000 view mark.

Should really start posting more, I don't feel like I've earned it.

But I'm on it!

Lots to post.

And more will follow, I promise.

No idea how I went from every day to like twice a month, that's madness, madness I tell you!

Let's start with the zombie apocalypse.

There's this new patron at work whom I have amusing conversations with when she comes in. She said she was thinking about the zombie apocalypse and who from her work she would choose to have on her team. She said probably no one would pick her to be on their team but it was her fantasy so she was automatically included.

It got me thinking about the zombie apocalypse and what would happen if I was stuck at the library when it began.

I think we'd have an awesome team. I mean, we're smart people.

And I don't say that to be an ass, most of us do have advanced degrees, granted none of them in killing zombies, but still, we have the smarts to learn how to.

And plenty of reading material on it - have you checked out the young adult area lately? Tons of books on surviving the zombie apocalypse.

And because we've got brains on our side we'll figure out how to set things like booby traps (you'd be surprised by what you'd find in our basement) and strategize for an endgame.

Because of our collection of books, DVDs, and CD's we have plenty of entertainment to last us years. Plus access to the internet and lots of comfortable seating areas.

But I ain't sleeping in the sick room bed. I'll sleep on the floor before I'll do that. And actually have, in the basement, in the periodical stacks. Set an alarm to wake myself 15 minutes later, huzzah for breaks.

Anyway, because of our location we have great proximity to both food and booze. And the Walgreens around the corner for extra supplies.

And we have a security guard with a carrying permit whose job it would be to not only guard the place, but take teams out to bring supplies back.

So we do have some muscle.

Plus it's a library so if we were open when it happened we'd be joined by people with a variety of different skills.

I'd want Wordie on my team. He's a badass.

The only problem with our locale is the glass windows. We'd have to do something about that. Board them up with old shelves I supposed. There's plenty of those in the basement.

Yes, these are the thoughts that we have at work. Anything to add comrades?

So there's that.

What else?

I've started eating lunch in the basement with the Queen of the Known Universe.

We find it amusing because we sit on the same side of the table and in front of us there's this big screen like we're waiting for a movie to start or something. Though she's usually reading or on her computer and I'm either playing hearts or sudoku on my ipod.

Oh, got a couple of Scale of Awesome's for you.

I finally saw The Matrix.



Well, I shouldn't say finally saw, I should say finally completed watching - I did see about 2 minutes of the beginning with my cousins before I fell asleep cause it was like 3AM when we started it back in the 90's.

I remembered none of it and asked the boyfriend a million questions as it went on.

Was totally grossed out by the pod scene, but the rest was pretty bitchin', giving this one a 9/10 on the Scale of Awesome.

We now have to watch the rest of the series. Luckily I gave him the trilogy on blu-ray for Christmas.

Also, on the opposite of the movie spectrum, though I guess not completely since this one did involve time travel so it was sort of sci-fi-ish but really not...you've got About Time.



Not as good, but really from the preview I wasn't expecting much. Scale of Awesome puts that one around 5/10. Had its moments, but they were few and far between.

Did I mention that Attachments by Rainbow Rowell is like an 11/10 on the Scale of Awesome? If you have no idea what I'm talking about scroll down, it's basically all I talked about in the last two entries. Did you hear her YA book Eleanor and Park is gonna be made into a movie?

I've started a new novel in an effort to give myself space from Beth, Jennifer and Lincoln, it's called The Martian by Andy Weir. About a man stranded on mars. It's funnier than it sounds. But I'm not far enough into it to give it a fair rating really so I'll skip that for now.

I'm also doing a ton of editing, which is always a 10/10, and why is it that whenever I watch something with an accent - even if it's just a clip - that for the next few hours I can only talk in that accent?

Like this entire post since that About Time clip has been written in a British accent.

I'm aware you don't see it that way, but perhaps now you'll read it that way.

Crimony. Moving on.

Life Size Game Day is coming up on Saturday so I finished my final preparations and actually went up to 4th to visualize it. I think I found a way for all three games to coexist. We're playing Candyland, Scrabble and Angry Birds. Gonna be an interesting afternoon. But only if people show up. Otherwise it'll be lame.

Apparently I have no life when the boyfriend gets sick because I went to bed at 9:30 last night. For serious, I woke up at 11:30 and went what the crap? It actually worked? And fell immediately back to sleep.

Oldest Sister would call me a panty-waste for going to bed that early so I'm pushing for at least 10 tonight.

Oh look, I've made it.

Thinking about turning on some Whose Line and crashing early again.

Last night it was the NC vs. Stanford game. Go trees. But UConn is gonna dominate.

Is that really their mascot, the tree? I guess I can't really talk cause I'm a Cornhusker fan.

To be fair we used to be the bug-eaters so it has slightly improved.



good change, a good...change.

Alright, and on to my new music segment called Why Don't People Know This?

or was it Songs You Should Know?

I can't remember.

Either way listen to these, they're fantastic.

Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club


yes i've posted that one before, just not recently.

You Are What You Love - Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins


another one i've posted frequently, but it's just so good!

one more and i'm out.

This last one is one of my favorite songs of all time. Like if I ever get married it will be played at my reception.

Reflecting Light - Sam Phillips


and yes that is the most-posted video on this blog so I'll switch it up, here she is performing it live at Borders Books.



go with that one to spice it up. yes, she is highly amusing and entertaining.

and that's all i got.

i hope you all are having rockstar weeks.


oh and if you're wondering about the title of this post - one of our regular patrons is a deaf gentleman. one day he needed quarters. as i do not know how to sign we had a lovely conversation on a slip of paper at the end of which he told me i was a nice lady. i took the slip and put it in the back of my nametag. the zombie apocalypse lady asked about said slip and i explained. on the way out she said that over her shoulder.