the bantam menace travelogue

PERMANENT MOVE

2008-08-23T20:51:00.008-04:00

no, i'm not talking about our our annual ritual. (are you kidding?!)

friends, the time has come for the bantam menace travelogue to settle into a new home. this is also me simplifying and being efficient. (and not having to upload photos on blogger anymore! can you hear the angels singing?!)

the new site is still under some construction, and will be home to all of my endeavors, but the blog is ready to rock. i hope to see you there!

you heard about it here first: www.madjeepgirl.com

<--- the lengths christopher goes to to keep his shirts from wrinkling after he puts them on.

open for traffic!

2008-08-21T19:56:00.004-04:00

so my dad's been working the last couple summers or so on cementing his driveway. it's 1/4 mile long and he finished the final pour yesterday. when he and mom came home last night from town, this is what they saw. their neighbor, Doug, put it up. i love it!!!

(also the cement deliverers didn't charge him for this final section, which was amazingly kind, and they gave him sealant for free. yay dad!)

3 months 10 days

2008-08-18T22:58:00.006-04:00

christopher turned 32 today. the celebration involved mongolian bbq, guitar hero, adult beverages, on the border and a professional massage. and buying video games.

finding chris' spit on the side of my car was NOT part of the celebration.

i honestly do not get that about guys. spitting in general, let alone spitting out the car window.

though my laundry finished in just enough time for me to get dressed and leave for today's assignment in zeeland, i had a good afternoon. it's not often i get the privilege of holding an actual two-sided conversation with an attorney, let alone one who seems genuinely interested in my part of it. my faith in humanity is restored, if for the moment. i actually drove out of the parking lot thinking about what a unique and interesting life i have.

do you ever look up and see that your pet is standing on top of their crawl tower, looking at you with this strange stare, and then they lick their chops?! she may be a cat (and a fat one) but it's still a little disturbing! i can only imagine what she must be thinking.

rollercoaster days

2008-08-12T11:34:00.004-04:00

ever have one of those days? you're up. you're down. ready to sob. hate life. love life. giggling on the phone. *sigh* it all makes me think I'm abnormal... or at the very least unstable.

I find this thought running through my head all the time: "What's wrong with me?"

and just this morning I caught myself. why do I always think there's something wrong with me? and maybe it's a hamster wheel of a discussion to enter into.

something I did think of this morning is the fact that I function best when I can see results. part of what I love about my job is when I work, at the end I can see what I've done. I have a work product, and it is finished. I don't ever have to deal with it again.

anything that requires me to work and work without "seeing" results or improvement or strength or fixed achievement (like in relationships and prayer and music practice) is terribly difficult for me to feel confident about. it's hard for me to move in the substance of those things because I'm acutely conscious about myself at the same time... not like when I'm typing a transcript or creating a spreadsheet and can focus on that task, not worry about my ability to do so.

it's weird. and I feel even weirder blogging it out. welcome to my brain. a strange and scary place.

t minus 11 hours and counting...

2008-08-08T19:51:00.009-04:00

before i take off for the weekend with two of my girls to hear drums, drums, and more drums, here is some more of what's been going on with me while i've been too busy for blogger ;)

liz has her first kent trails/houseman's experience yesterday. we split a turtle flurry. and liz gets her braces off next week!!!! WOOHOO!

chris deflated our exercise balls. i really liked mine for the chair aspect. it was kind of like those red and blue bouncy things our church had when i was a kid. you'll notice the strange door-looking contraptions in the lower right-hand corner.... that's right, friends, the jeep is leap-into-able!

i've been going to physical therapy for the last four weeks at health motion on 44th street. i've thoroughly enjoyed being evaluated and worked on by professionals, despite the very literal pain of the process. they really figured out what's going on with me, and i'm SO relieved to know that it's not that my body simply started falling apart when i turned 30 ;)

my morning today was full of drama and a lot of tears, but i was able to get in a few hours after i called, and actually discovered more the root of my problem.

seriously. professionals.

relief.

i was entirely enthralled by this dragonfly while hanging out at the knapp corner biggby...

...especially when all of a sudden he would flip himself over onto his back (which he did twice!) from head butting the window trying to get out. i am slightly ashamed to admit that i did not rescue the little guy. i thought about it, but i was afraid i would hurt him, or damage his wings (you know, like how you can't touch a butterfly's wing or it can't fly anymore?). does that make me a bad person?

my neighbor (without the assistance of alcohol this time!) redecorated my parking spot, totally covering up jenny's contribution, which stuck around for a long time :)

(jenny, i saw TONS of garage sales today! next week. we're doing it. i'll call you.)

this picture was taken on 131, heading north from burton street. i was making my way to alpine. yes, the top was down. i totally thought i could beat the storm. about ann street i realized i wasn't going to make it. and then as i was waiting to turn right onto alpine, i learned that the top doesn't go up unless the car is in PARK. derrrr.

piscin has officially deemed this blog post to be "not amusing."

well, i'd like to see HER do better.

>:E

I don't speech good

2008-08-08T10:20:00.001-04:00

maybe I notice this because I end up hearing individuals talk for extended periods of time, but many of the people I encounter have pet words and phrases. i'm not sure if they realize it, but it's really easy to pick them out. because they repeat them. A LOT.

and then I started noticing that the phrases don't really add anything substantive to the questions or comments they're stating. they have become superfluous.

it makes sense that when something is our favorite, we use it a lot. it's just strange with words, because it seems boring and lazy and sometimes annoying. I mean, couldn't you say something else that means the same thing....after having used it six times already? it already drives me crazy if I have to use the same word twice in an e-mail, let alone hear the same word/phrase over and over in a formal meeting that's literally on the record.

here are the ones I've noted being grossly overused recently:

Person #1:

"Insofar as..."

"With all things being equal..."

Person #2:

"...alludes to..."

Person #3:

"hey" (used in exactly the same way, and in exactly the same places in speech, that a valley girl would use the word "like" -- I know, it's bizarre even trying to imagine it!)

do you have any pet words/phrases that you find yourself using all the time?!

BETTER THAN JIM!

2008-08-06T22:15:00.014-04:00

and this was my battle cry by the end of the day.

what? you don't know what i'm talking about?

okay. here we go.

[11 hours earlier]

chris and i (both off work for the day) depart from our wyoming apartment for the lovely lake isabella area. my oldest friend aaron, and his wife lisa, had a baby girl

(lauren elyse) two months ago. because they're teachers, we offered to come visit on a wednesday (totally random, i know) since chris has it off all the time. what do you know?! they're not doing anything ;)

i was hoping to hit the road by 9:00 a.m.

so around 10:00 o'clock the engine is running and we're nearly ready to leave.

chris is calling the bank because we discovered a few minutes before that he can't find his debit card. we drove back home (we were just a few minutes away) so he could look for it, instead of canceling it and then potentially finding it on the counter later.

the sun is shining, there are clouds in the sky, and we're on the road at last. top down.

snacks in hand. we finally arrive at their house, despite the conspicuous lack of street signs (they think neighbors, who had a party a few months ago, stole them). we spend some time catching up, having lunch, and smiling at the baby girl.

around 2pm aaron decides to launch the boat, taking chris and i for a tour around the private lake. around 3pm we dock, walk back to the house, and wait for the babysitter to show up, allowing both aaron and lisa to hang out with us. on a boat. on a gorgeous day.

and then it begins.

now, chris and i aren't huge water people, but we certainly enjoy a boat ride, like any normal person. (i nearly drowned swimming off a particular boat in lake michigan a couple summers ago with a bunch of particular musical people, and have since avoided such activity)

but aaron is bound and determined to get some kneeboarding in. there's no one else on the lake mid-day on a wednesday, so it's perfect conditions.

but apparently, lisa doesn't drive the boat. chris is shaking his head.

so what's a girl to do?

fine.

i'll drive the boat.

i'm excercising that muscle that would rather stay in my comfort zone. you know the one... the kind that DOESN'T WANT TO KILL ANYONE.

so i get a quick tutorial, a couple practice runs, and we're off to the races.

i really, really didn't want to suck.

I VOWED TO BE AWESOME.

i really did. out loud.

and i take my vows seriously. i've only made two so far in my lifetime.

aaron told us how bad his friend, jim, was at driving the boat.

I WANTED VERY BADLY TO AT LEAST DRIVE THE BOAT BETTER THAN JIM.

So here i am, driving the boat -- ready for it?! -- better than jim.

that's right.

"BETTER THAN JIM!"

i said that loudly, too.

there was a lot of laughing, a lot of wind, and a lot of gunning the boat full throttle.

nobody lost any sunglasses, hats or cookies.

i also held a baby.

of which there is photographic evidence.

and aaron said i drove the boat better than jim.

take that, jim.

the latest

2008-08-01T12:35:00.005-04:00

thank you to my two run-through teams from last weekend!

above: jami, kate, tasha below: linda, dan, diane

the actual hunt is this sunday afternoon.

and in case you're wondering where the heck i've been lately, that is what has been taking up the vast majority of my time. but it's gonna be good, and i'm really excited for it.

and now i return to the scheming and plotting and cutting and marking and printing.

my soundtrack for this endeavor is the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 soundtrack.

which i simply CANNOT stop listening to. Bear McCreary is frakkin' BRILLIANT.

So say we all.

dropping in

2008-07-21T23:44:00.003-04:00

whilst scouting for the treasure hunt, the queen of england and i stopped by to say hello to ms. nienhuis. we tried to call before we showed up, but she was a little busy.

things were boiling and freezing and timers were going off. she was doing something with the green beans (blanching? bleaching? i can't remember. help me out.)

while the green beans dried, diane showed off her current stash of frozen vegetables.

and then we made a trip for ice and -- well, ice.

like i say, there are no errands, just chances to drive.

the mines' kalamazoo debut

2008-07-21T11:38:00.009-04:00

last wednesday our favorite local band, the mines, played their first gig in kalamazoo. every wednesday they have what's called the mixer on the mall. it starts at 5:01 p.m. when everyone gets out of work. there's beer and live music.

despite the fact it was chris' day off, we made the trip to cheer loudly for our friends. kalamazoo didn't know what it was missing.

chris' parents even came out for the second set and loved it.

though the crowd didn't rush the stage, and were understandably a little busy holding their beers to be applauding very much, the mall was pretty packed. the mines made some new fans, (the kind that are genuinely enthusiastic, not drunkenly excited) and made some sales.

the only suggestion i heard was that they need a banner so people know who they are.

the mines had a great couple sets and sounded vocally rested and ready to RAWK (as one of the members who shall remain hairless likes to put it) and were in rare form with their usual comments and introductions. they look different by the light of day, don't you think?! no hazy smoke... i hardly knew what to do.

the man in yellow was practically beside himself when the mines closed with purple rain. he sauntered all the way up front, by himself, and danced for most of the song. the band ended up giving him free CDs, and publicly made him an official member of the mines.

uhhh... i'm not sure what this really means. besides the questionable obvious. any ideas?

just because it's funny

2008-07-21T11:30:00.003-04:00

last night chris was taking down our tv from the wall mount he bought earlier that day. we were getting ready to head out for dinner and i was hongry. but when i told him i was ready to go, he was still unscrewing the wall mount.

so i said, "are you going to do that right now?"

he said, "it's from wal-mart."

***

liz often accompanies me when i do my treasure hunt scouting. so far it's always been rainy at some point, if not the whole time. interesting things happen when she and i are together. and while the following image may be disturbing (for kate), it was one of the most hilarious things to happen to us ever.

here's the story: we're scouting for diane's treasure hunt. we're walking along the window on the waterfront park. liz steps over what she thinks is a stick. IT MOVES. she jumps and screams and jumps a bunch more (how you do when something gives you the heebie jeebies), and swears she just saw a snake. i chased it through the grass and we proceeded to have a photo shoot with him.

but liz is the one that picked him up with her bare fingers.

i used a stick.

[don't worry. trick photography used. snake not as large as he appears.]

father's daughter

2008-07-21T11:05:00.000-04:00

the older i get, the more I realize how much I'm like my dad. i think it's genetic. i bet it's a V chromosome (or A, if you're looking at it upside down), that predisposes me (and lisa, for that matter) for similar Vehicular (or Automotive) tendencies.

for those of you unfamiliar with where this thought comes from, my dad is a mechanic. he's been running his own shop since 1979. i grew up watching vehicles go in and out of the shop, our lawn, and our life. more often than not dad's held claim to multiple motorized vehicles at the same time, each with their own special purpose. sometimes he would buy them to fix up and sell. sometimes something just struck his fancy. and this is how it has always been. (mom said once that she used to keep a list of all the cars but quit ages ago when she got to 100.)

I refer to this phenomenon as the revolving fleet.

i won't bore you with his current fleet stats, but i will tell you that he built a garage specifically to house just his jeeps. jeeps plural. meaning more than one, and definitely more than two. i believe he actually has 8.

and now, for the first time ever, chris and i have officially achieved fleet status.

in an effort to obtain a vehicle with better gas mileage than the adored bantam menace, we now have more vehicles than there are people in our household (meeting my definition of "fleet").

meet

The Baron

the baron is a peppy 1992 nissan 240sx se with just over 90,000 miles.

and yes, it's a he.

and yes, when it gets colder i will wear a neck scarf and aviator glasses.

sneaky drive-by photographing

2008-07-10T17:45:00.004-04:00

one of our neighbors to the south walks his pet every day. and when i say he walks his pet, i mean he literally picks up his cat, and walks, carrying it in his arms.

i don't know if his kitty is incapable of walking, is allergic to a leash, or maybe is even blind, but this sweet man dutifully lets his pet enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of nature.

random blogicity

2008-07-10T14:05:00.007-04:00

some more things you might not know about me

it annoys me when words aren't pronounced correctly
my mom was an english teacher. my day job involves grammatical and punctuational correctness (i feel your apostrophical pain, miss laura).

my top 3:
1. it's asphalt, not ash-phalt
2. it's michievous, not mis-chevious
3. it's pronunciation, not pro-nounciation (the irony doesn't escape me)

i detest softballs. baseballs only, please.
when i was a kid my dad taught lisa and i how to play baseball. well, backyard baseball... the kind that only involves hitting a ball with a bat, and catching it in your glove (or your throat, if you're lucky enough to be standing in the right place at the wrong, wrong time when dad is up to bat!). so while i'm certainly no yoda when it comes to the way of the diamond, i have discovered a severe distaste for the softball. literally the ball. it might also be because I have munchkin hands. yes, I know the mitts are bigger than your hand. but if you've ever attempted to catch one of those honkin' things with a mitt, your hand is still an important variable. in my opinion. and it's WAY more fun to hit a baseball... they go farther.

last night (joy of joys) i got to play catch with some of my favorite guys. (seriously. i just wanna be one of the boys.) at one point someone (i don't know who, so I can't yell at the culprit specifically) threw me a softball (probably because I'm a girl, assuming we're all about the softball. give me a break).

i let it hit the ground.

i wanted to spit on it, but i just gave it a dirty look.
i might have kicked at it, though.
maybe.

typing days

2008-07-02T07:08:00.009-04:00

in the encyclopedia of rie, a typing day is a day of pseudo freedom. it means i don't have to wear a suit, i don't have to go anywhere in the suit, and i don't have to sit around in a little room with other people who are also wearing suits. while it is not officially a day off, it is often a day without pressure... i don't feel the vice of deadlines stressing me out, i can sit in a comfortable chair doing work, i can do some laundry at the same time, run errands... whatever. it's the perfect kind of workday.

one of my errands yesterday involved a trip to the apple store. not the real, juicy kinds. the shiny, fancy kinds that you type on. on my way there, i get a phone call. "i've been stalking you since byron center but i can't catch up with you" i hear as tasha roars up behind me! and for the record, a four-door wrangler with the top down looks BAD-A$$.

and then we both went to the apple store :)

if you've heard of the barn theatre in augusta, but are wondering what's up with that...

411

there are mosquitos. you park on a lawn. you get adult drinks at the rehearsal shed beforehand. you can pay to have a drink waiting on your table for the after-show cabaret spectacle. you can witness a professional-grade performance. you can sit in the back and discern facial expression. everyone working there is a performer, and they're already in costume.

my niece keegan, though i don't see her much, apparently thinks i'm funny because she laughed at me a lot on friday. we caught her playing with spiderman at grandma's house (her uncle chris is very proud).

after aunt deedee's memorial service chris and i, and his sister katie, made a run to frosty boy for ice cream. someone overheard our clamor in the hall, and soon more family showed up. here's uncle tim and chris' mom, sue, saluting the employee of the month.

i married into the best, most random kind of family!!

thank you all for your prayers and support for me this sunday. i felt good about the experience, and thought that it went really great. a few people said something to me afterwards, and the response was very positive. i haven't heard anything from the bald brigade, who i didn't see at the service he said he'd be at, so there's no telling yet whether we might get to do this again, or if the people with opinions that matter were in approval.

this is chris saturday night ironing my pants.

because otherwise, i would have looked wrinkly.

and i'd hate to embarrass him like that.

monday evening was diane-time, and it looked like an m. night movie (because i was concerned for diane's well-being . . . you'll understand when you see the movie), a stop at home depot (where someone cruelly tricked her by leaving an empty box of cigarettes underneath a van's rear windshield wiper), a failed attempt to visit the julie (though we did succeed in finding her house and looking in the windows), and a couple hours at founders (where, upon arriving, i was informed she had a bird in her hair).

now that i am all caught up on my typing work, i am feeling great and getting sleep. and i've got a lot of scheming to do, with treasure hunts coming up in my very near future ;) mwah-ha-ha!

gnome home

2008-06-26T23:09:00.008-04:00

chris left me a message yesterday demanding I drive by this house. and then he laughed and kept saying "it's ridiculous! it's ridiculous! it's ridiculous! but it's awesome!" all while laughing. he drove me by it later in the evening, and then came up with this gem:

we should start adding gnomes to this menagerie. do you think they'd notice?

it's been a busy week of typing at the homestead this week, and while piscin has many cozy spots where she likes to plop down, she slept here yesterday.

i had to hold my camera out over my laptop because all I could see was her hindfeet resting on my leg. bizarre.

and then matthew said, "look! it's even got a flash!"

tonight's rehearsal was GOOD. it felt a little wierd to be sans troy, and was considerably less rambunctious minus alan, but nevertheless it was a pretty run-of-the-mill practice... smoothing rough edges, confirming who does what and where, adjusting lyrics... while matthew puts flames up on the screen, or a random photo of troy in a wig.

we've been a team for a long time (i think it can be measured in years now), and it felt absolutely comfortable to be working through songs, making alterations and suggestions, tweaking, asking questions and replaying something because it was the right thing to do.

it was incredibly thrilling to sing and hear ethan on harmony... to play parts on the keyboard that add (not just make hectic noise) and really feel like a part of the band... to know everything is and is going to be fine.

***

a word of advice: don't drop your phone under the stage, near the middle. matthew's arms are not small enough to reach down there to retrieve it.

a question that requires an answer

2008-06-24T19:53:00.004-04:00

so I'm just curious. I blog kind of helter skelter (or harem scarem) -- seriously, who came up with these phrases?! -- and why do I use them?! -- with little intention or purpose, very unlike some of my fellow bloggers.

so I'm wondering... why do you read my blog?

I know you're out there. so what is it that you come here for?
there's no right or wrong answer, friends, I'm just curious.

knee deep

2008-06-24T16:08:00.005-04:00

my everpresent load of typing and traveling is a little hefty this week, but not enough to send me into hysterics. I rarely reach that level of panic, but I was edging closer and closer to it, until I got some deadline confirmations this morning. how do you spell relief?!
(does anyone remember those commercials?)
so I even felt free to run some much needed errands today. the bantam menace got his tires rotated, I gave a bank some money, and even popped in to a couple stores to check some things out for my mom. I sat down to do a little more typing, then headed back out for one more errand: the movie rental store.

today's destination was movie gallery, to pick up the spyderwicke chronicles. what I didn't realize until I headed out the door was that, although I was dressed for a comfortable afternoon of typing, I wasn't necessarily dressed smartly. I was wearing Detroit Tigers shorts, a University of Tennessee t-shirt, and my usual Boston Red Sox hat. and I wasn't exactly color coordinated either. now if only my flip flops were branded...

but only the clerk at the store saw me, and she didn't say anything, so it's okay.

and no, I'm not taking a picture.

really. because a regular light switch is too low brow for an insurance company.

****WARNING: if your name is diane nienhuis, stop reading right now****

***

this is the kind of things our cat LOVES to sit on. she will waddle into the room, head directly to a backpack or bag, turn around a time or two, and then settle down right on it.

you'll notice that it's a deliberate position. there's no "I'm going to lay down here even if this bag is in the way." oh, no, it's "I'm going to lay down on this bag because this is living."

friday foray into fremont

2008-06-20T13:32:00.009-04:00

today's adventure into the middle of nowhere began this morning at 6:00 o'clock. way too early, if you ask, but unfortunately necessary as i needed to be on the road by 7:00 o'clock. i didn't do too bad, as the rubber met the road a few minutes after.

thankfully, though,this was not in my parking spot ->

as i battled my way through 7:00 a.m. traffic (and 10 minutes too much of 196 construction) i cranked the stereo (coldplay's viva la vida) and prepared to begin enjoying my drive.

<---- it's kind of sad that this is the kind of thing that you get excited and voluntarily backtrack for.

I've been to fremont a few times, so even though I'd never been to this particular doctor's office, I knew exactly where it should be, and was able to find it quickly.

no turnarounds or illegal maneuvers necessary.

but I kept my eyes open. and you will be sooo glad that I did.

Exhibit A: Local Landscaping

if you're from any kind of small town or out in the country, this is probably nothing new. I haven't seen anything like this lately, though, so I had to stop.

while I didn't get a good shot of it, I actually saw a horse and buggy parked along the side of the road, stopped at a garage sale. and jenny, had I known how many garage sales I was going to pass today, I would have invited you along. it would have been AWESOME.

and while I didn't stop at any garage sales myself, I did note a number of larger ticket items I could have purchased: a dune buggy, various tractors, a snowmobile, hay, 4 wheelers, a jet ski that looked like a miniature boat & other random farm equipment that looked kind of scary.

Exhibit B: Be Vewy, Vewy Quwiet

I think it's obvious that this sign is lacking some majorly important details.

another thing I noticed out in the sticks is the motley assortment of "businesses" that are everywhere like weeds. I could have stopped at "Hillbilly's Automotive" or "Determination Equestrian Center" (is it because the people are determined or the horses are?)

Or there was a sign (handpainted, on a piece of wood, no less) that said, "Used Sporting Goods" "Cheap." but first you had to traverse a driveway that was about 1/8 mile long, to a house that was half hidden by trees. yeah. that's not creepy.

***

Exhibit C: The Tourist Trap

i don't even want to know what it is you'd be observing.

***

Exhibit D: Marketing 101

this is the side of a building, on the outskirts of Muskegon. it makes me wonder... are they that on top of their inventory that they always have 500 guns? I guess I'll never know.

friends, have a safe and happy weekend. chris and I are trekking up to cadillac this evening for a visit with the parental units. There's a hint of scrabble in the air . . .

domestic peeves

2008-06-19T12:04:00.005-04:00

today's blog is inspired by two strangers i overheard meeting at biggby coffee.
this is probably very unchristian.

1. when people say "ya" instead of "you."
the only acceptable exception is shortening the throwaway phrase "you know" to "y'know"

2. mopeds operated on non-motorized trails
are you an idiot? you're going to hurt someone.
this obviously does not apply to the time I drove my car on sidewalks on cornerstone's
campus, between pickett and the seminary. that's just a right of rebellious passage.

3. people who don't know how to drive
as demonstrated by their inability to follow signs, use appropriate lanes and understand
what "right of way" means

4. cliches that people still use and think are clever or funny
in a checkout lane: "no tag? it must be free!"

5. people parking in my designated parking spot
I get crusade-worthy indignant when this happens, be it a car or a bicycle.
I have been known to leave angry notes with colorful language on said vehicles.

what bugs the heck out of you?

barry county

2008-06-17T19:52:00.006-04:00

for some reason I keep getting barry county and calhoun county mixed up. which explains why the last time I tried to talk about the calhoun county courthouse I was really confused because it was obvious I was not talking about the same building as the other person was!

anyway, the other day I was at the barry county courthouse in hastings. miraculously the little conference room I was stuck in had AIR CONDITIONING. this is miraculous, because the building looks pretty ancient by modern architectural standards.

what was sweet this day was I actually got to hear a journalist say, when asked to reveal a source, "I'd rather go to jail."

in other news, it's summer now. and yet I am finding it difficult to get myself outside, even for a walk or a quick bike ride down the ribbon of asphalt just a few feet yonder. the tennis outings have even had a tough start, and I've only been out once. am I too wrapped up in work? was I really just faking being outdoorsy before? am I just lazy?

the prevalent thought in my mind these days, about everything, is "what's wrong with me?" and while I understand the necessity to not dwell on that too much (but just DO what it is I feel I should be doing) I wonder if it's a valid mystery to simmer in the brainpot awhile. my questionable logic is if I can determine the cause, then I'll know what to fix. is that reasonable? or am I simply crazy and should just learn to live with it?

cinco

2008-06-17T19:31:00.004-04:00

some things you probably didn't know about me

1. i really, really like the smell of burning matches
2. i've always wanted to live on my own in an apartment
3. it's hard for me to get to sleep at night
4. one of my goals is to make felt out of my cat's fur
5. my favorite bible passage of all time is psalm 139

oh, marie

2008-06-13T11:56:00.004-04:00

so kate got a bunch of us talking about names a little ways back. well, I have something to add. I'm sitting here at biggby coffee (formerly beaner's, though lindsey and I still call it that... the rebels that we are) and while they typically play THE SAME THING ALL THE TIME over their loudspeakers, I heard something fun: a song called "Marie". It's an old jazz song, and the lyrics go something like this: "Oh, Marie, my heart is breaking, Marie..."

I used to have the song on cassette tape... one of those random jazz compilations you can get at Wal-Mart, and I always imagined it was sailor men singing. (don't ask me why. I guess they just sounded like sailors. obviously in their white sailor suits, of course.)

another fun song I DO hear often here at beaner's is "salt peanuts." we played it in jazz band in high school, and the best part about the song was I played keyboard bass (that's right. I'm awesome.) and at the end of the song we had to yell, "salt peanuts! salt peanuts!" and of course it had a very specific rhythm to it, which I will gladly demonstrate for you on demand. the first time I heard it inside beaner's I nearly freaked out. the first couple measures are unmistakeable, and I IMMEDIATELY CALLED MY SISTER, who would understand my excitement and delight in the random memory, because she was there for it.

that's right, while I played the uber cool keyboard bass (dude, I rocked on Mack the Knife and the Pink Panther theme), piano and one vocal song (Summertime), my super cool sister, lisa, played the trumpet. jazz band is probably what really united us as friends when she was a freshman and I was a senior.

we have many ridiculous memories from the jazz band days. what's more, jazz band is THE ONLY THING I miss from high school. wierd, huh? I have some fun memories from choir, and the musicals, and honors english where I did practically nothing, but jazz band was sooooo the highlight... it was laid back musical fun.

from our santa-hat elementary school tour, to our high-strung chain-smoking director, to the annual craft show concert (when steve wore his speckled tie with his striped shirt because the colors matched), to all the crazy members of our band which consisted of jocks and music nerds alike...

my least favorite memory is screwing up on the keyboard bass at the crucial beginning measure with JUST ME PLAYING THE BASS at state festival and getting THE LOOK from mr. whitmer. I WANTED TO DIE. RIGHT THEN. RIGHT THERE. ON STAGE. AT THE KEYBOARD BASS. granted, I did not continue to suck for the rest of the song, and the rest of the bands were way better than us anyway, but it was not a good moment for me.

and thus concludes today's rabbit trail.

which reminds me. in the sixth grade at camp rotary, one of the teachers pretended to eat rabbit poop. we all believed he really did it. I mean, survival is survival; right? but it was really raisins that he ate. totally faked us out.

aren't you glad you stopped by?!

postponements of particular proportions

2008-06-11T11:15:00.004-04:00

okay friends. here's the deal. two upcoming events have been moved back.

first, the coldplay concert that was scheduled for July 5 at the Palace is now moved back to November something. UGH. this is totally a bummer, but apparently their show just won't be ready in time. the first two weeks of their tour have been sent to the back of the line. chris and I never really jumped on the coldplay bandwagon, but their two newest songs (Violet Hill, Viva La Vida) are kick-@$$ and I can't wait to hear the rest.

second, (and more nerve-wracking) ethan and I are going to be leading worship on June 29th. it was originally set for next week, but plans changed last night. I haven't told many people about this simply because I was feeling hysterically nervous about it. (all I had to do was think about it and I swear my entire insides turned to ice) but, I discovered when I started mentioning it, that I was much, much less nervous. so, trusted friends, now you know. (and after meeting yesterday and solidifying our plan, I'm actually feeling really, really great about it now.)

the moral of the story is: trust your friends to support you, make a good plan, and don't reserve hotels on hotwire to go see a rock show.

the last thing I'm going to say is this: alanis morissette is crazy talented. the overall theme of her new album, flavors of entanglement, is obviously rooted in the emotions and heartbreak of a relationship's end. and doesn't it always seem to be the tragedies of life that provide the most fertile creative soil? my favorite track is "Not As We." absolutely beautiful.

waterloo

2008-06-09T11:37:00.005-04:00

the weekend began with some fickle weather. it rained. it stopped raining. it started again. every hour it was something different, i swear. regardless, come 8pm the mines hit the clock tower stage and were not interrupted by rain, hail, or any other type of precipitation.

their most committed festival of the arts fan was there, interpretive dancing her way through their set. this is year four of her appearance. i wonder what she'll do next year!

you run into the strangest people downtown...

on saturday we headed to kalamazoo for our brother-in-law's surprise 30th birthday party. he was entirely surprised (he was suspicious, then recognized a bunch of cars all parked together down the road), but there was a good crowd of friends and family, and adult beverages.

we left kzoo just before 9pm, hoping to beat the storm. we were almost halfway home when it caught up to us... and when i say "caught up to us," i mean "tried to pelt us into the pavement." we did pretty good (minimal waterlog-edness) until we got home.

there is an overhang on our building that juts out over the steps. we literally had to walk through a waterfall to get to our door. it was so surprising and cold it took my breath away.

sunday we decided to go for a bike ride. we hit the kent trail, and got ice cream at the end. as we headed back to the staging area for the return trip, the sky began to look not so pleasant. just a few minutes after we got back on the trail, we were caught in the storm. and fyi, tree cover does not mean you won't get wet. we were absolutely drenched. mud spit up our backs from our back tires. i couldn't see out of my right eyeball because my contact was drowning. luckily we both wore baseball caps, which certainly helped with visibility.... i don't know how i would have seen otherwise.

underneath M6 we took a short break from the deluge. i felt like i had been swimming with how soaked i was and how breathing was kind of a struggle.

after cleaning up from our water tour, we headed out for dinner and a movie with my sister. we saw some police lights down 44th street, and saw one tree that had been struck by lightning that blocked the westbound lane. (we also saw a civilian running towards it holding a chainsaw, so i'm guessing it didn't block the road for much longer!)

closer to clyde park we saw ANOTHER tree down, but we were able to get by it. luckily none of the trees in our complex were hit and we still had power.

it's always a treat to hang out with my little sister. and boston's is always a guaranteed winner when it comes to their pizzas. it didn't look like it was going to rain for awhile, so we risked walking to the theatre from there.

chris and i saw kung fu panda friday night and LOVED it, so we were more than happy to see it a second time. and i knew lisa would totally dig it (and at one point was the only person laughing in the theatre...welcome to my family). when we stepped in to find a place to sit, someone waved at us. it took me a moment, but our pals dwight & jenny were there with their nephew... they, too, had lost power. i love random run-ins!

this is something i saw at meijer.

things I learned tonight

2008-06-04T23:07:00.004-04:00

dwight is the biggest hockey playoff fan we know. due to the fact that this is new knowledge, and given my previous post on the subject, we may have inadvertently caused him to seriously reconsider our friendship!

but I just learned that detroit has emerged victorious, so maybe he'll let it slide...

the standard faucet water sprayer is NOT an effective method for killing the huge-@$$ bug that sprang out from the depths of the kitchen sink where it was lying in wait to ambush me. it is, however, a great way to get water everywhere (read: on the overhead light fixture, as well as on top of and all over the fridge). In case you're wondering, the kitchen towel IS an effective mutant insect destroyer if the traditional fly-variety-swatter is not readily available.

and now that my heart rate is back to normal, I return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

2 Paws

2008-06-04T15:49:00.011-04:00

Today I made a little trip down to the Van Buren County Courthouse in Paw Paw, just west of Kalamazoo. I had to be there by 8:30 to set up my equipment, so it was an unusually early morning for me. And even though I knew when three alarms went off at 6:00am that I needed to get up, I still slept for another 10 minutes. and then I got up. :)

my eyes have been especially puffy lately, specifically under my right eye.

I think piscin may be punching me in my sleep.

I think there's something Mike hasn't been telling us...

it's been supremely gorgeous out lately. this was taken during a solo bike ride on the kent trail last week just south of M6. it is also fairly near the spot where kaylee and I were the receivers of a crude catcall (though she claims it was aimed at me) while we enjoyed a brisk walk.

friends, I enjoy watching sports, but I think the baldtrain has the right idea... there is nothing like playoff games. chris discovered that Studio 28 was playing game 5 in their theatre (as well as game 6 tonight), and I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is NO BETTER WAY to watch a hockey playoff game than in HD on a frickin' movie screen. and, it was an intense and exciting game to boot, that went into multiple overtimes.

oh, and by the way, it was free.

memorial day weekend chris and I enjoyed a fantastic leisurely weekend. at first we were just gonna laze around, but we ended up making some spontaneous movie-going choices. one of those nights our neighbor below us in apartment 2 (who also happens to be one of my favorite baristas at the real 44th street beaners) celebrated her fiance's birthday with some friends. needless to say, when we arrived home late that night, we discovered that our parking lot had undergone an amazing transformation via sidewalk chalk...one of which was the labeling of my carport :) and even though the rain washed away everything a couple days later, my nametag is actually still there!

and finally, this (don't worry, it's a potato) is what I took out of the microwave today when I got home. I was going to warm some food up, but this was already in there. when I showed chris, figuring he had simply forgotten about it, he gave me a funny look.

he HAD forgotten about it after he put it in the microwave.

four days ago.

checking in

2008-05-28T23:35:00.002-04:00

as i took care of tidying up a couple last things before going to bed tonight, i started preparing my brain to sort through the day. it was a day that contained an element of practically everything i love about life right now.

and i'm busy.

and tomorrow's horizon looks the same as yesterday's horizon.

and i started thinking about how busy i am. i started thinking about how i need to sort out my busy-ness in my head, to make sense of it, to try to organize it; everything in its right place and tidy. and i think that's part of my problem. this busy-ness just isn't going to go away, and the more i try to talk it into order and verbalize my plans to structure it, the more entangled and hopeless i feel.

when the simple fact is, if i just keep breathing i'll be okay. don't freak out, rie. everything will find its place.

so i'm drinking my glass of milk, and getting ready to crawl into bed. there's a lot going on, and i have a lot of work to do on many fronts, but it's good. i can handle it. i'm ready for it. it's exciting.

and i'm stretching and flexing, gratefully easing into the creative flow once again. work is caught up, neutering the panic of tomorrow's rush job. i embrace a relaxing evening at home as right and good, not a pleasure to be ashamed of.

talk to you again soon :)

the swell season

2008-05-12T20:48:00.002-04:00

this weekend the musical bliss continued. we packed up a minivan with some friends (sans sick jules) and headed east for what promised to be an evening that would just melt me.

despite getting in the wrong line (VIP tickets only, folks. you need to go through the parking lot, around to the other side of the building, and get in that line) we happened to catch a glimpse of glen hansard and marketa irglova walking around across the street, videotaping or something.
tasha was uber cute and elizabeth...
well, gravity cannot keep this girl down... or her hair! she tried to pat it down, but we wouldn't let her because... well... I needed a snapshot with which to share here. own it, liz!
the official proof that I was there!

honestly, we were much closer than this shot implies. and from song 1 to the several songs that were played after they came out for their encore, I was in heaven. I'm still singing along, even today.

so here are my instructions for you: go rent the movie "Once", buy the soundtrack, befriend The Swell Season.

I told a friend of mine that after these crazy few weeks of life, glen hansard would make it all better. and so he did.

true story.

1,000 words

2008-05-10T00:18:00.008-04:00

XXXII

2008-05-08T16:17:00.005-04:00

friends, the last three weeks of my life have been relentless. my work assignments and schedule have been surfing the busiest wave i've ever encountered since i started this job four years ago. it's fantastic for my paysheet, but grinding on my soul... time feels like a claustrophobic prison that i am despairing to escape from. to regroup. to be still. to breathe deep. to simply tread in the present moment.

yet as i endure, i am breathtakingly aware that god -- in and amongst my frantic typing sessions, day-long depositions, and the panic of personal deadlines -- saw fit to insert shiny, unexpected and surprising moments saturated with laughter, friendship and love.

just when -- and how -- i needed it most.

at the same time that the work vice was tightening with its greatest intensity, i have also been barraged by the greatest outpouring of love. i am taken aback by the words you have spoken; they have calmed the self-doubt roiling in my mind and gut, and lightened me. i am lucky to have these connections with you that, if we think back to their origins, are awfully coincidental. and yet amazingly perfect in how they have unraveled to today.

such is the way of god. the way of love. the way of faith. the way of community. i have experienced it and i know it is real, even in these relatively compact experiences.

friends, you help me see the best parts of me. and i sincerely trust you. thus you help me to love myself better. that's a pretty swell gift, one that is often difficult to receive.

happy birthday to me.

breather

2008-04-27T20:19:00.007-04:00

friends, i am officially pooped. it was a busy, crazy weekend, and i didn't wake up today until well after 1:00. in the p.m. and i hadn't even been drinking!

first off, friday night chris and i shared some laughs with his family. along with his parents, and two of his uncles, we went to The Laughing Post in Kalamazoo to see Robert Schimmel. chris' uncle mike, who got him interested in schimmel, was able to make the show, too. it was a blast. and fyi, the pizza at Shakespeare's Pub is amazing.

saturday was a fairly eventful day.

at 4:30 in the afternoon chris and i watched ethan and ashley get married. i'm not normally an especially emotional person, but i leaked like a faucet. ashley was gorgeous, ethan was sniffling, troy was in a suit and tie, and the ceremony.....the

words, the music, the joy.....was simply beautiful and moving.

and then we were off again.

the next several hours found us preparing for my latest treasure hunt: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. it was the entertainment for a school cast party, who just finished performing the play. children had to eat turkish delight, the white witch made an appearance, and eventually everyone found aslan. the treasure hunt blog will be updated soon, so you'll be able to see all the craziness.

chris and i left the school sometime around 1:00 am, hit the ihop for a little bit, and then crashed. i'm thoroughly enjoying the evening, not doing anything really, and then i get right back at it tomorrow. another treasure hunt is happening NEXT weekend in Holland.... also on the first day of the tulip time festival. nothing more can really be said about it, because i know diane is out there....

i'll be in touch ;)

this land

2008-04-22T23:06:00.004-04:00

greetings from the land of deadlines. i am pooped, and do not have the energy for exclamation points. but somewhere deep inside they are hibernating.

i have been quite busy. and it's only going to get worse. but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

my work is currently trying to fill a recently vacated position in detroit, so i'm busier than usual as we are all helping to pick up the slack, which requires more travel. today i was in grand rapids AND grand haven. tomorrow i also have two deps, but thankfully i'll be downtown.

other than that, i can't really tell you where i've been or what i've been doing. because i know diane is out there. and that she will mosey on over here. and look. so i have to keep things hush-hush. confidential. top secret. on the downlow. mum's the word, people.

that also means that in about two weeks this blog will practically explode with information and pictures and adventures and even some "elizabeth versus wild" photographic wonders. hang in there. it's coming.

what i can tell you is that i'm doing a treasure hunt this weekend. it's for a cast party. for a play. i saw the play tonight and really enjoyed myself. it's the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. saturday night's the night. it's going to be a blast. elizabeth will be going undercover once again, this time as the white witch. my wedding dress will be making an appearance.

it's official. i have a strange life.

so, i'm off to Spare Oom to work late into the night. because i found out this afternoon that one of my typing jobs is now a rush job . . . and they need it tomorrow.

of course.

check you later.

one man's trash is another man's....

2008-04-09T19:47:00.002-04:00

TRASH!

at first i thought this man was my neighbor. as i loaded my stuff up into my car, i realized that this man is NOT my neighbor... and that he was not throwing away trash... he was LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO TAKE HOME WITH HIM.

this random dude then drove out of our parking lot. i was just a few moments behind him and saw that he turned out of our parking lot INTO the next apartment complex parking lot. i could see the dumpster there in plain view... AND HE PARKED RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT, and got out of his car. shameless, this trash picker is. doing his rounds, i guess. i wonder if he even lives here, or if he just cruises apartment dumpsters looking for tossed-away treasures.

it doesn't matter. it's creepy.

official blog debut!

2008-04-05T10:21:00.004-04:00

everyone meet ashley!

last night a few of us celebrated her betrothal with san chez sangria and an assortment of foods impossible to pronounce... though I personally didn't touch the fungus. nor did I even touch its plate. when it comes to in-laws and 'shrooms, you have to have your boundaries.

three weeks from today ashley will become a nickerson (not to be confused with knickerbockers, or ichabod crane). we've gotten to know her a lot better recently, and our world is better for it. even if she is -- swallow...don't vomit...say it...you can do it... -- a yankees fan. we do still love her ;)

so yes, a bunch of girls at a bridal shower, and the conversation turns to baseball.

and a little football.

that's right people.

we're awesome.

ashley, you grace the stage, you inspire great love songs, and you have musical brilliance inside of you. I believe it! I'm glad I know you, and am thrilled for the adventure that awaits you.

and your dog is crazy cool.

bicycling. it's american.

2008-04-03T14:35:00.004-04:00

while I was doing my banking via drive-through canister-flying, the teller asked me, "so are you going bicycling today? I see you have a bicycle on the back or your truck -- er... vehicle." seriously. BICYCLING. who calls it that?!

day 1 on the white pine was a huge success!!!

it was a little cold for ice cream, but our dam dogs hit the spot. and kate, now that we've completed our recon of the trail, it is ready for you and rylie-on-wheels. for real. our people will call your people.

this is the only picture I took the night of the mines experience.

it's no bunny sign, but it's what chris would call ridonkulous.

saturday night we celebrated elizabeth's 42nd birthday.

complete with burgers, fries, and peach sangria (surprisingly delicious!)

lots and lots of stacker...and more than enough james mcevoy on the big screen.

on the 8th day god created facebook

2008-04-03T00:12:00.005-04:00

there's a saying that I love that goes something like this:

"there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet."

so i was camped out at beaners for the better of the day. when I finally got up to throw away my grande cup and start packing to leave, a stranger happened to be walking in my general direction. as our paths crossed, he raised an arm, as if to give me a high five.

now, as I realize what is happening, my mind is racing. do I know him? he looks vaguely familiar, but maybe only because he LOOKS LIKE someone I know... have we met before?

and as I hesitate until it's truly safe, he says, prompting my return five, "Friday night?! The Mines show?!"

and I understand. he was there. I was there. he saw that I was there. thus began a brief but lively verbal fist pump. because let's face it, the mines are brilliant, and NEED strangers to have random encounters at coffee shops telling stories and sharing our feelings about them. and laughing. always there must be laughing involved.

in other news, THURSDAY, APRIL THE THIRD, marks the first white pine trail/dam dogs adventure of 2008! tom, last name foolery, is already loaded up. grape G2 at the ready. peoplemusic on my ipod. the menace is fueled.

is it sad that we planned our excursion around what time dam dogs opens?!

did you know that my birthday is exactly five weeks away?

it's true.

my silly life

2008-03-25T12:10:00.006-04:00

while not gratuitously silly, the following messages i received sunday evening embody the personalities of a couple of my favorite people. i thought i would share, if just to preserve them for all eternity on this mysterious internet. thanks, al gore.

(*my only disclaimer is to ignore any meowing. that's just my crazy cat being ornery.)

FIRST SAVED MESSAGE
(listen really closely for the giggling)

SECOND SAVED MESSAGE
(and this one is just funny because she sounds confused)

life in the mad mitten

2008-03-20T13:32:00.005-04:00

so i'm sitting here, minding my own business. i got up a minute ago to use the facilities, and when I walked back to my little table, THIS is what I saw:

how did THAT sneak up on me? it did NOT look like that an hour ago.

here is what my feet look like right now:

i'm so in denial. this totally sucks.

jenny, you asked for it!

You have to use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following.

(they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up!)

You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl question.

1.What is your name? marie
2. 4 letter word: mast (specifically the kind found on a pirate ship)
3. Vehicle: mazda (zoom zoom...)
4. City: mexico city
5. Boy Name: mohinder
6. Girl Name: moesha
7. Non-alcoholic drink: milk (it does a body good!)
8. Occupation: marine biologist (but I don't believe they exist)
9. Something you wear: monacle (but I don't wear it in public)
10. Celebrity: madonna (who is also from Michigan...)
11. Food: monelli's pizza (84th street, to be specific)
12. Something found in a bathroom: mushroom (if it's lisa's old house)
13. Reason for being late: mauled by a bear
14. Cartoon Character: Maleficant (10 points if you know who this is)
15. Something you shout: mooby! (50 points if you know who did shout this!)
16. Animal: mamba (as in the deadly snake that crazy australians like to taunt)
17. Body Part: medulla oblongata (mucous isn't technically a body part)

i smell things

2008-03-20T11:54:00.005-04:00

and if you know me well, you could testify under oath that this is an accurate statement, so help you god. if chris offers a bite of food on a fork for me to try, I have to smell it first. new books... did you know they have a great smell?! and walking around office supplies, be it an aisle or an entire store (kate, can I get a witness?)... you can practically smell the crispness of organization and neatness!

today I had to be downtown pretty early. (okay, so it's early for me, mister "I have to be in kalamazoo by 8") there ended up being a LOT of waiting off the record, even after we started. most of the waiting involved me being alone in a room with one other person, who was pretty chatty. at one point he was just looking at me and then said, "You know, short hair doesn't look very good on some women, but it looks good on you."

*brief uncomfortable pause*

"Well, thank you!"

I don't want people to feel too self-conscious or uncomfortable in these situations (okay, sometimes I'm cranky) so I shrugged it off and just decided to graciously accepted a compliment. though the circumstances that brought us all there (divorce) made it kind of creepy. minutes later he repeated that my haircut looks good on me, after the discussion turned to receding hairlines and comb-overs. I don't think he meant to be creepy, he was just being friendly and conversational, but it still made me wish I had an excuse to leave the room and just go out and stand in the hall by myself.

I remember the first time I got my hair cut SHORT, I was working at ups on midnights. women who tend to work there fit a certain stereotype (or at least it's practically assumed) and so I was worried that if I got my hair cut this short, that it wouldn't help my cause, since I'm not a girly-girl anyway. the first thing my boss said: "it looks good! and it doesn't make you look gay."

but since I've had short hair I've been called "Sir" three times. twice when I was in my browns in saginaw, and addressed from behind, and once a couple weeks ago at beaner's (again from behind) as I was putting my big black coat on. once the sir-callers saw me face to face they practically tripped over themselves to apologize, but I think it's funny. (the beaners barista said "hello, MA'AM" to me a couple days later when he saw me!) and now, being a battlestar fan, it bothers me even less.

did you ever have that problem, jami? (and did you ever post a picture?!)

and I heard the birds this morning!!

but i don't think they were singing.... I think they were saying, "woody woodpecker, it's COLD!" "man I'm glad I don't have teeth, because they'd be frozen and then they would chatter and then they would shatter!" "cold cold coooooold, cold cold!" "whose idea was it to come home early?! frank, I'd kick you if I could move my legs!"

saint patrick's day aftermath

2008-03-18T09:22:00.005-04:00

it's 5:15. do you know where your leprechaun is?!

we celebrated st. patrick's day on saturday. because we can. dwight and jenny decorated, passed out "kiss me I'm irish" necklaces" (which is cool...because I AM irish), and they sported green headgear.... ONE of which the dogs were afraid of, so I kept it near me most of the night. it was like opposited poled magnets... as soon as the hat was in front of them they were immediately repelled. brilliant.

dwight called us earlier in the afternoon to help him with a surprise... jenny's birthday is this coming friday, march 21st (wish her a happy birthday on friday!) but we had cake and ice cream at the party!! it even had a special jenny-candle :)

the best part is that dwight and chris were all huddled around the cake WHILE JENNY WAS IN THE KITCHEN at one point. elizabeth needed ibuprofen (I thought maybe she was trying to sneakily get jenny to leave the room) BUT WHO KEEPS THEIR MEDICINE IN THE KITCHEN?!

regardless, jenny never saw it coming. we sang, she endured it, then she blew out the candles (and even smoked one) and then blew out the candles again, because they were strangely difficult.

emmet eventually made his way to his favorite christopher, and perched there for awhile. I think he thinks he's a parrot. hey! great idea for halloween!
the hoeks were instrumental in the scene-it victories.
and we were very sad to see them go.
I like to call this off-kilter photography. which suits the subject matter quite well.simon doesn't leave without some lovin' from the pooches, and maybe a kiss or two.

2008-03-15T14:06:00.002-04:00

This may surprise you (well, not tasha) but sometimes it's hard for me to be myself. sometimes when I'm around a group of people I don't know I'm very excited to find out all about them, and joke around with them, and make new friends... and sometimes I just withdraw into myself, stay quiet, and hover creepily near someone I know. end intro.

this morning I went to a baby shower.

shocking, I know. I know nothing about babies, less about baby showers, and pretty much nobody AT the shower. I wasn't sure how it would go. basically I grew up with the dad-to-be, sang at his wedding, and we've hung out once or twice with him and his wife, who now live in mt. pleasant. I really like her, though I don't know her extremely well, so I was glad to be invited to the shower. plus it was in hudsonville, and turned out to be quite literally just down the road from me. and luckily, there were just a few people there, and they were her college girlfriends. I was feeling pretty confident that I would be having more of an outgoing day. and I was very glad to find that her friends were also very friendly and welcoming, and I actually had a very good time...and some awesome chocolate cake. AND...I won something, so that was pretty cool. I can kick ass on those nursery rhymes, I tell you what!

it didn't take me as long to get to the shower as I thought it would, so I just drove around for awhile. I see the strangest things when I'm just out driving around:

seriously.

check it out!!! the bantam menace's new nametag is here:

I hung out with my sister yesterday... we had qdoba, beaners and even a little shopping. and then we saw these geese just walking across this frozen pond, honking away like a couple drunk guys stumbling home, arguing with each other.

4 (four) things

2008-03-13T12:03:00.004-04:00

I was tagged by Miss Diane to tell you 4 (four) things about myself:

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. choir director
2. architectural project management assistant
3. court reporter
4. UPS driver supervisor

Four movies I would watch over and over (or have watched over and over):

1. once
2. the family stone
3. everafter
4. emma

Four places I have lived:

1. saginaw (where I was attacked by a Nazi hound)
2. kalamazoo (where the snake incident happened)
3. manton (where I learned to drive on army surplus)
4. cutlerville (my friend's parents' living room)

Four TV shows that I watch:

1. battlestar galactica
2. terminator: the sara connor chronicles (dun-dun dun dun-dun)
3. lost
4. the office (seriously, who DOESN'T love jim?!)

Four places I have been:

1. oxford (I bought a sweatshirt)
2. the grand canyon (I wore a sweatshirt)
3. estes park (my sister feared my driving in the rockies)
4. washington d.c. (I learned to fear my sister's driving)

Four people who email (or call) me regularly (in no particular order):

1. lisa (my wicked sweet sister)
2. elizabeth (elizabeth...elizabeth...ELIZABETH! ELIZABETH!)
3. mr. chris (the guy I come home to)
4. mom (the one who carried me for 9 months)

Four of my favorite foods (also proof that I don't like to cook):

1. pizza (specifically faro's)
2. jimmy johns #12, with regular chips
3. grande mocha carmel (biggby)
4. the rockford chili dog (dam dogs in rockford)

Four places I would like to be right now:

1. beaners -- I mean, biggby coffee (oh wait! I AM there!)
2. riding along in my automobile...no particular place to go
3. on a plane (I love flying, and airports!)
4. at the bank cashing a check for one million dollars

Four things I am looking forward to this year:

1. wearing tennis skirts
2. riding a train
3. getting a lift kit for the bantam menace
4. finally hearing music I recorded five years ago

Four people who should/will (must!) post 4 (four) things about them:

1. jami (because there's more to her than meets the eye)
2. mr. chris (because he's my favorite)
3. kate (because I like imagining how she would say her answers out loud)
4. jenny (because she needs to blog more!)

another day, another cup of coffee

2008-03-07T15:30:00.002-05:00

I don't think piscin likes it when I leave all day. do you see the way she's looking at me?! today I did some on-site scouting for an upcoming treasure hunt. it's going to be the main event for a cast party, for the play, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." seriously. does it get more fun than that?! the entire hunt will take place inside a school, so I got something of a tour today.
the lady who hired me works with elizabeth, so I also got to see where she works (she really does have a desk and everything!) and have lunch together. oddly enough, I didn't see her doing any actual work...

last night was a poster hanging party for the mines upcoming experience show at the wealthy theatre. I don't know how much of a "party" it really was, because there were moments where I couldn't feel my fingers. but, a bunch of us showed up, paired off, and then tackled a stretch of road and beautified some telephone poles. then today as I ordered my grande mocha carmel, I realized I recognized the lady behind the counter. at least, I thought I did. when I told her she looked familiar, she admitted I did, too. (this is why sometimes it's good to look a lot like your parent) as you've probably guessed, she knows my mom. she goes to church with my folks, and she and her family own 4 of the beaners down here. her son has been overseeing them, but it's been a bit much for one person to handle, so she's planning on being down here more. they own the beaners at ivanrest, 28th street/studio 28 (otherwise known as lindsey's beaners), beltline/woodland mall, and Kalamazoo/M6.

it's a small world, my friends.

180 Ottawa, 12th floor view

2008-03-04T16:50:00.003-05:00

the city takes on a different feel for me when I'm looking down at it. it doesn't seem so big and imposing, yet I still feel pretty small.

family time = food

2008-03-02T23:27:00.005-05:00

lunchtime sunday we ventured to monelli's on byron center ave. we'd never been there, and it seemed a fun place to check out, so we all met there before mom and dad headed back home.

lisa is one of the most energetic people I know (bass player evan has her beat, though) and no one was safe as she began attacking her fettucine alfredo (including herself). the big talk around the table involved cell phones... mom learning how to send pictures, everyone taking pictures, showing everyone else, and dad making very subtle funny faces. our waitress was fantastic, and even though they didn't have mexican food (but the other monelli's does...) we all had good food, and some of us (dad) cleaned up more than his share of plates.

would you believe that when we were kids, you couldn't MAKE my sister's hair curl? now it's ridiculous. and the last time I tried to grow my hair out because I missed my curls, it was dumb. I think you can count on the short 'do for a long time to come.

for some reason they made me sit next to this joker.

it's been a long weekend, but we had fun. and someone changed scrabble history. (at least for the time being) I don't think piscin liked that we were gone so much... but that's okay. maybe she started thinking about updating her blog...

W-I-N-N-E-R

2008-03-02T20:32:00.005-05:00

the fam came down to visit this weekend, thus spurring yet another battle on the scrabble board. dad has been undefeated, but we believed in the dream. this is how it has been since the beginning of time...monopoly, chess, tennis... and now scrabble. the ultimate goal: to beat dad.

taking some moves from dad's playbook, I scored a 57-point word. and though he looks a little nervous in this picture, he was not to be deterred, and simply does what he does: scored BIG on little words. but luck graced us! two games, and the winner was...

me!

though i doubt the crown will be mine for long... lisa and brian will be battling dad on the scrabble board tomorrow, so I fear for them... he will be spelling with a vengeance, I'm sure!!!

"the word" was requested, and here it is. J(A)DE, with a double letter score on the J (16) and a triple word score. 19 x 3 = 57. and all with a blank tile. yeah, baby.

my day

2008-02-29T02:33:00.003-05:00

it started early. and mocha caramelly.

it ended in a haze of smoke. and in the key of rock.

and after midnight adriane and todd celebrated their 9th and 8th birthdays, respectively.

a good day.

free coffee

2008-02-26T18:41:00.002-05:00

the grand rapids press was on hand at my usual haunt (the real 44th street beaners, as we call it) to photograph the ridiculosity that was last night and get some bystander comments regarding the free coffee at biggby from 5:30pm to 8:30pm while starbucks was closed for training.

by 5:30 a small line of about 8 people had started, but by 6pm things had gotten worse... much, much worse. I had been there since about 2pm or so, and was waiting for free coffee time. don't ask me why, but I didn't get in line right away. I was waiting. for WHAT, I have no idea.
so I left around 6:45 or so, since I couldn't get much work done... it was quite noisy. and people and their kids were jostling up in and around my space. I'm not exactly a fan of people's butts being right by my face. sorry, but that's how I am.

I had plans to meet lindsey at the biggby by studio 28 after she got done with her conferences. as I approached, I could see the line of vehicles trying to get to the drive-through (and making no headway), so I parked next door at the burger king and hoofed it. through the window I could see people I knew sitting at tables!!! random run-ins are fun :)

I couldn't get any farther than the outside of the little foyer entrance thingie. it was 8pm. lindsey showed up about 10 after, but I couldn't see her. biggby ended up having to lock the doors at 8:30, but we got all our drink orders in.

then began the real wait. lindsey and I got our coffees around 9:20pm. that's right. the things we dutch west michiganders will do for something free.

the drive-through was also closed at 8:30, they even put a sign out there, but one lady who came through around 9:30 could do nothing but complain about the waiting and getting nothing. the manager even went out there to apologize to her, but then she got mad at him for apologizing.

so we were pretty well entertained.

and in the spirit of lines and waiting, today I went to the good ole secretary of state to conduct some business. since our family does all sorts of weird stuff with vehicles, being in each other's names, but someone else is driving it and has insurance, I met my sister at the SOS closest to her house just in case I needed her. it didn't open until 11am today, so I got there a few minutes before. would you believe this is what I drove up to?

seriously. it's a wednesday, people. anyway, the wait inside was pretty typical and we were on our way by 11:40. I would have gotten done earlier except I put my bag in my sister's car and kept remembering stuff that I needed, but that I left in my bag. ridiculous. but, I got a title transferred and a new license plate ordered. the bantam menace will have a more fitting rear nametag soon. have no fear, it will be photographically documented and shared with you all. I am definitely that much of a nerd.

ah, well. hope you guys are enjoying your day!

a rare moment

2008-02-25T00:25:00.006-05:00

i don't often yell at the tv. i've never put a video on my blog. and i don't often watch award shows. but chris had the academy awards on tonight, and more than once i went over to the sofa to watch what was going on. i was rapt watching glen hansard and marketa irglova perform "falling slowly" from the movie "once." if you haven't seen this movie, or listened to the amazing soundtrack, here is their performance from tonight.

and yes, i yelled loudly and cheered when they WON best original song, beating out three songs nominated from the movie "enchanted" (which you should also see, if you haven't already ;)

and jon stewart was the best host ever.

seriously.

a boeing 707?! brilliant.

coincidence

2008-02-20T16:14:00.004-05:00

last month or so i ran into an old ups co-worker at sam's club. it was one of those things where the timing was JUST SO, or I wouldn't have even SEEN that it was him. he was remarried, had kids, looked great, and still at ups...now doing the same job that made me miserable. it was good to see that he was doing well, surviving his work and looked happy with his family. he had been a boss, co-worker and friend. i had even stayed at his parents' house for a couple weeks when I was between apartments.

today I went to the library to do some work. there were people sitting in my favorite carrels, so I wandered around for a bit before deciding to just make do at an available carrel. as I set my stuff down, the person on the other side of the carrel looked up and said, "hey, marie!" holy CRAP, if it wasn't one of my OTHER ups buddies. we were supervisors on the midnight shift, and we used to go to denny's after work with another supervisor a lot, eat hash browns, smoke (secondhand for me), hang out and talk about whatever. he quit ups a couple months ago, is working toward his msw and feels like he's actually doing something he was made to do. he still goes to my church, his family is doing great, and he's working in his field.

so does anyone have a theory as to why these coincidences -- which aren't necessary or important to my life -- happen? I mean, I think about these and other people every now and then and hope that they're doing okay. but that i actually get to find out sometimes, is there really a good reason for it?

happy winter!

2008-02-17T23:16:00.008-05:00

here are the most recent images from my life.

yesterday chris called me on his way to work to tell me about the above situation. i'm really not sure if this was just a casualty of bad winter driving, or if somebody just took advantage of conditions and exacted revenge upon the usps mailbox and grand rapids press box... I can certainly understand if that were the case.

this is piscin's new favorite place to sit. look at her. she thinks she owns the place!

and while this isn't a picture from this afternoon, she's meowing, which is the lead in for my next story. so this afternoon I'm recording some vocal parts. I've got the headphones on, I'm singing nice and loud (as if I were in a gang, one might say...) and all of a sudden I feel (and hear) piscin behind me. SHE IS PISSED. she's rubbing her head on me, biting my elbow, and basically yelling at me to SHUT UP. this occurred once before in our not too distant past, when I tried to learn how to play the penny whistle. she was NONE too happy about that, and attacked my neck from behind, trying to bat the thing out of my mouth... from behind... (i guess she's not that smart) or just trying to claw me to pieces to get me to stop. needless to say, as I listened to the recording today, you can TOTALLY HEAR HER MEOWING. it's ridiculously funny :)
mr. chris makes some friends!!! this is at dwight and jenny's house a couple weekends ago. emmet found a new place to lounge, chris' shoulders, and daisy might be a little jealous.
also while at dwight and jenny's, I learned about emmet's other favorite place to perch.... the cabinet ABOVE the kitchen counter. seriously. if you don't own a pet, you're missing out.
the other fun thing about owning pets... dressing them up! here's daisy in a jacket that makes her look like a boxer pre-fight, while brandy watches. there's a couple more pictures that blogger won't let me upload tonight, so I'll add them later.

but seriously. pets are a hoot.

"I want you to stay here"

2008-02-13T11:43:00.003-05:00

"why?"

"because I hate you."

can you name that movie?!

so this is how chris greets me at the library today. with a cat fancy magazine. with a stupid looking persian cat on the cover. I love these cats! if they weren't so flippin' expensive, we would totally have one. I mean, look at its face!!! talk about a never-ending source of entertainment... I dare say piscin would even make fun of it...

so I have a lovely day off today. I'm at the grandville library, my newest "office."

chris recently discovered the wonder that are carrels, complete with power strips, and was so excited to tell me all about them. he was very disappointed that my nerdiness already knew such things existed. but in the interest of cutting down on the coffee intake, here I am.

have I ever mentioned how much I love libraries? and books. books that are in the libraries. my mom is an avid reader (two her favorite authors are Isaac Asimov and Max Lucado... figure that one out) and would take my sister and me to the library at least once a week during summer break. as a kid I loved mysteries (nancy drew, hardy boys, boxcar children, trixie belden, the three investigators) and books about animals, and totally chose books by their covers. this is how I ended up reading a very random scifi book about cats that rule the world (breed to come). I love me a good story... with twists and surprise connections. harlan coben is ridiculously good at that. if you haven't read anything by him, I suggest Just One Look.

enough of my talk about books and stories. it's making me want to go find one of those books with the little green dragon sticker on it and go home to my easy chair to read it.

happy wednesday everybody!

31 with 31's

2008-02-12T10:04:00.000-05:00

i'm not ashamed of my age.

i'm also not ashamed to admit that I like to shop and i enjoy a good sale.

though my kind of sale shopping is not always the typical "girly" kind.

i also enjoy the realization that God really DOES work all things out for good...

or has divinely allowed certain things to happen...so that something we can't see gets taken care of.

how about an example, you say?

my pleasure :)

so I'm sitting at beaners yesterday, feverishly typing a job due in the afternoon.

after awhile, the manager comes in from outside, walking past my vehicle.

she had recently made the comment to me, "You live here."

so needless to say, she knows who I am, and is pretty sure what vehicle I drive.

so she comes in, and out of my peripheral vision I notice her intentionally approaching my "desk" (as I like to call it). "I think you have a flat tire," she says. "That is your jeep, isn't it?"

Crap. I have to leave for my dep by 3:15, just in case 44th Street is crappy or traffic is bad.

but thankfully it is in town.

cut to the night before....

chris is checking the weather online, because he commutes to kalamazoo for work, and the roads have been especially not good the last couple days. and weather.com, or whatever website he checked, actually described the roads he would have to travel as "treacherous." so he called his boss, who happens to be his mom, and he got the day off.

so chris is home all day yesterday.

so I call him up, letting him know I have a flat. he heads right over so we can swap cars, and so he can take care of my tire. the air pump we have in my jeep, which conveniently has a lighter adapter, was a no-go...the battery was dead (thanks to pumping up bike tires in the summer) and the lighter adapter cord was short by a mere matter of inches.

so off to discount tire chris goes.

and he wouldn't have been able to take care of me if he had been at work :)

and we had recently gotten our tax return, and after paying off some debt we had some extra left. and chris was also planning on cashing out his vacation time. and it's crappy weather, and we were planning on buying new tires by summer anyway.

so now the bantam menace has four new wheels.

and not only were they on sale, but we got an additional discount as well.

and they're the tires I've been wanting.

(yes, I have such wish list items)

does this make me weird?

s-bowl

2008-02-04T13:07:00.001-05:00

i didn't grow up a sports fan. i totally married into this world. i love the emotion, the thrill of winning, of seeing a player do well, rivalries, cities that rally to their teams, tradition and silly curses that aren't real.

I tend to be a fan of a particular player, and then their team by extension. which is probably silly in the man's world of sports, but it's how I do things. so there.

when it comes to football, I heart brett favre and peyton manning. and tony dungee. (yes, I know he's not a player.) so when the packers lost to the giants this year in the post season, (tear), I knew I would be rooting for the giants.

I know what you're thinking. "but you hate new york!" ah, but I hate the YANKEES. there is a difference. ;) "but you love boston! that's in new england!" yes, but I have never liked the patriots. I told a friend friday night that tom brady is too good looking; too much of a pretty boy. silly, my reasons for not being a fan. and while this may seem a paradox, the fact that it is another manning boy playing for the giants, I knew where my loyalties would lie...by extension.

did you hear howie rattle off all the numbers of how many times brady was sacked, hurried, etc.? did you see how many times he got hit?! I don't get too excited for football, especially when I'm not entirely passionate about either team, but last night I yelled and jumped off the sofa, and cheered (and still got to see peyton...) and even cried a little. though I was tired and still hacking up globs of mucousy-grossness, I ate pizza and cookie dough and G2 (and did you see peyton in that commercial, too?!).

and my favorite commercial was the one with all the animals screaming!!!!! the s-bowl commercials have been a real let-down the last few years, but last night I laughed pretty hard at a couple.

well, I'm off to the doctor this afternoon. hopefully this stupid cold gets to go away soon and my other problems get resolved. I asked and my worked allowed me to take tomorrow off, too, so I get some extra time to recup. I hate asking for things like that, but it's so horrible sitting in a tiny room with five people and all of a sudden you have to hack up mucousy globs, and you KNOW everyone in the room is thinking "why is she here? she's sick! great. now I'm going to get sick."

so there are my random sickly thoughts for the day :)

sleep? what's that?

2008-01-31T18:02:00.001-05:00

so I've been having some really wacked out dreams lately. of course, now I can't remember them, except for the one where I had long hair in super cute braids. the other one was immensely disturbing... drama and death and just plain disturbia... and I can't remember if that was before or after chris and I watched "invasion"....

don't sleep, don't sleep....

braving the frozen tundra

2008-01-31T12:07:00.000-05:00

**for some reason blogger won't let me add lines for spacing,

so I apologize for everything being all jumbled together.

you gotta love that when the biggest snowstorm hits the lakeshore,

THAT'S WHERE MY WORK SENDS ME.

yesterday i started my day in our grand rapids office, at cascade and 96.

then I drove to hart.

HART

it normally takes an hour and 15 minutes to get there.

it took at least twice as long to make that trek yesterday.

I-96 and US31 were terrible.

(see the picture above)

I wasn't able to go much faster than 45.

45 miles an hour

AND THAT'S NOT ALL.

then, after the dep in Hart, I had to go to Ludington.

LUDINGTON

which normally takes about 30 minutes to get there from Hart,

but you guessed it, it took about twice as long yesterday.

my keister spent over six hours on the road yesterday

for what totalled 33 minutes of testimony.

chris' car

(no way was I taking the menace to the lakeshore with those winds)

traveled over 230 miles.

AT 45 MILES AN HOUR

I got home about 6pm (after a short stop at subway in hart for some

desperately needed grub) utterly exhausted.

I went to bed around 8pm.

yeah.

and that never happens.

and I didn't get up today until around 10.

thankfully my work kept me home today

and I'm happily getting ready to do some typing.

but I think I'm also coming down with something, and have been

hacking up some lovely globs of mucousy-type substances.

doesn't that sound great?!

my commitment for tonight I'm cutting short, so those of you who will be at rehearsal, I'll be there for awhile but I'm not going to sing. I don't want to get anyone else

hacking up equally lovely globs of mucousy-type substances.

for now I'm at my favorite coffee vendor, in a quiet corner, typing happily away, feeling a little bit foggy and a little bit achy ('course that might be because I started lifting weights a couple days ago...), and looking forward to a quiet night at home after a little rehearsal.

and I can't wait to hear those three little words tonight...

PREVIOUSLY, ON LOST

and jami, chris started playing wind waker and he LOVES it!!!!!!

no boo-hoo

2008-01-25T14:10:00.001-05:00

spending as much time as I do at the local caffeine-infested watering hole, I see (and hear) a lot of business people and church people. it's uncanny. I was just overhearing a dude on his cell phone. it jogged my memory, and now I am going to share...

things I don't miss from corporate america

1. overused sports analogies ("going to bat" for someone...that you need to "step up to the plate")

2. impersonal management styles (the insincere "how are you doing?" right before they rip you a new one)

3. that numbers are king (not customer service or employee morale)

4. 12-hour days on salary

5. wanting to physically harm myself because I'm so miserable

6. wearing khaki pants

7. acronyms for everything

8. being only as good as the people you're responsible for

9. the neverending cycle of goals

10. feeling a prisoner to offered promotions or you won't go anywhere

but there were some good moments, too. so here I will share:

things I enjoyed about corporate america

1. being the only expert in the district (all of Michigan except Detroit) and recognized as such (at 24)
2. traveling all over the state on my own (17,000 miles worth)
3. meeting my husband (and defying company policy)
4. training employees well
5. making up fake definitions for acronyms (ugly people of satan...)
6. wearing suits and feeling good in them
7. the feeling that you're a significant part of something bigger than yourself
8. knowledge (of people, systems, competitors)
9. maintaining and reporting data (I'm a nerd. I love numbers and spreadsheets.)
10. friendships (I had buddies. Sometimes I miss them.)

too little time

2008-01-23T11:05:00.000-05:00

first of all, when you're in a coffee shop, the smell of BABY WIPES is neither pleasant NOR welcome. it's disturbing. either someone has some pretty bizarre flatulence and needs to see a doctor, or there's some geurilla baby warfare going on.

do you ever get the sense that there's just not enough time to do all the things you want to do? i just felt that. I mean, I feel it often -- don't get me wrong -- but every now and then it's just very acute.

peculiar in pink

2008-01-22T12:22:00.000-05:00

these are two of my favorite pictures of my husband.

i came across them today while trying to figure out the best way to share pictures from treasure hunts with everybody... and i had uploaded these to kodak gallery back in'05. eventually I'll move them to flickr so you can download to your hearts content. today I'm at my favorite beverage cafe getting some real work done, but when I found this I thought you might like a good laugh.

maybe even a guffaw.

the treasure is in the hunt

2008-01-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

guess where I was the other day...

YOU GUYS... the Tour DiCocco... unbelievable.

some of you competed, some of you were my secret helpers... and some of you I owe BIG TIME for sitting in the cold for 3 hours!!! I still can hardly believe what a success it was.

I feel really great about it overall. at this moment I am SUPREMELY pooped; utterly wiped out. I have accomplished only 1 thing today, and I will tell you about that in a moment.

the treasure book for the dicocco's is not yet finished, but they are now aware of it. I will keep you posted as to when it's done and when it gets sent. the joy I get from doing these books almost surpasses the amount of fun it is putting hunts together...

okay. I'm just about ready to go to bed, but I have something very fun to share. for those of you who utilize bloglines or some other rss feed thingie, you're going to want to add this: www.thetreasureisinthehunt.blogspot.com

this is a new blog, dedicated solely to my treasure hunts. I have the final and official team standings listed from the Tour DiCocco along with some photos. it'll be a work in progress, but I hope you check it out! I'm going to send out a ginormous e-mail tomorrow to everyone that was invited to the hunt with team standings and a link to the blog as well, so hopefully it'll garner some feedback.

now I'm off to bed before I make myself sick.

it's been a long, tiring, emotional weekend. I'm so glad I know all of you.

sleep well.

yawn. stretch. yawn. repeat.

2008-01-17T23:02:00.000-05:00

our apartment smells like burnt popcorn.

it exploded in our microwave last night. chris said smoke was billowing from within....and wouldn't you know it, the smoke detector never went off. but I woke this morning to a very weird smelling apartment. it's freezing in here because I opened the slider, hoping to thin out the stench....

no such luck.

so if you come over in the next few days, consider yourself warned. or just spray some butter on yourself.

it's been a good day. i wasn't put on the schedule because our IT guy needed to come down and check out my laptop (turns out I had a bad sound card), so I had plenty of opportunity to continue working steadily in my Tour DiCocco preparations. my cat is tired of me yelling at her and swatting her off the sofa where things are laid out. she's been yelling back. :P

link is patiently waiting for me to have some free time so we can search out and conquer the ghost ship soon... *sigh*

well, back to work >:)

seriously. some of you just don't know what you've gotten yourself into! and I hear the weather is going to be ridiculous.... the dicocco's are saying goodbye to Michigan.... and michigan is giving us all the finger! hehehe

see you all soon :)

DiBusyness

2008-01-15T15:08:00.000-05:00

i think I'm going to start taking more vacations. this week my workload is getting back to normal. we have about six reporters in the Holland-Grand Rapids-Lansing area, and one part-timer (who is presently in Papua New Guinea with Bibles International). so there's more work to spread around to those of us that are NOT in papua new guinea.

but the last couple weeks I merely spent getting caught up on typing work that I had let pile up, because I'm a procrastinator and always, always find something better to do with my time. and what I've realized is that while last week I had absolutely no work to do after Monday, I was able to sort of clear my system. I feel a bit revitalized and I don't have that work-drag feeling going on. that's why I'm going to start taking more vacations (or at least one week out of the year, where I have absolutely NO typing to do whatsoever!)

so this afternoon, I've been working on typing the transcript of the dep I took THIS MORNING. that's right, I jumped right on it. a little out of character, but it feels good. I like to stay ahead of things when I can, so it feels good. I'm only allowing myself to type for another hour, and then I'm going home to work on a fun project....

the Tour DiCocco that is going down this Saturday :)

I keep getting e-mails, and more and more teams are planning to show up. I think we're up to 10 teams now!!! It's exciting, and I have a lot of work to do between now and then. It's all busy work, the tedium of putting papers together and such, but I love it. we held a run-through this last saturday to test it out, and it was a great success!!

i know a lot of you are going to be there...

do you know what you've gotten yourself into?!?!

well, you soon will...

hehehehe

so, back to my typing.
but I wanted to say hello! and let you know I'm still alive, just busy.
I'll come up with clever things to say another day.
but I'm glad you still stop by to visit :)

pay shint says sever chew

2008-01-10T00:28:00.000-05:00

i realize that it's been a long time since i've met you all here in this space. and i appreciate your patience...hence the title...

while i only had a couple assignments these last three weeks (including a day in court in white cloud), i didn't get to relax like i thought i would because i had a couple HUGE typing jobs to complete. today was my first dep in a long while, and i got to hit the road. i love a day of driving on a gorgeous day like today! especially when i know where i'm going and know my way around when i get there. and a new beaners is going in on stadium drive in kalamazoo!!

which reminds me...
you know you spend too much time at your favorite coffee chain when a worker from the Breton Road location sees you at the Byron Center Road location and knows who you are and says, "so you go to this one now, huh?"
yeah...

i've been able to dedicate some solid amounts of time towards an upcoming treasure hunt i am calling The Tour DiCocco, a michigan-themed good-bye hunt for my friend tracy and her fam who are leaving soon for africa. a 2-time hunter asked me what he could expect. i said, "something completely different" >:) mwah-ha-ha!!

the other thing that has completely thrown me for a loop these days is this facebook thing. i've now chatted with some of you there, found a bunch of old friends and acquaintances, have seen pictures of their kids and listened to their compositions. i absolutely love it. while it's not necessary for me to live a full and happy life, it's like a kind of closure to know where people are in their lives...and it's exciting what different things they're doing, pursuing their dreams, raising their families, living and enjoying life. and in turn, i feel really good about where we are... and im happy that i don't look horrible in my pictures :P

i've been laughing a lot. this doesn't surprise you. i know. but being caught up on work, and having the freedom to be creatively expressive really does wonders for me. maybe this will help motivate me to stay on top of my work... i'm the least motivated person ever. i'm not disicplined, studious or hard-working -- unless i'm in the right mood, and that just doesn't really cut it in reality, i don't think. because i'm always in the right mood for one thing, when i should be doing something else. and i've especially noticed that i'm NEVER in the mood to clean...

but right now i'm in the mood to sleep.
so i'm going to bed.
i promise i will be back very soon.
don't say i didn't warn you...

sheldon family christmas

2007-12-23T16:30:00.001-05:00

so my mom and dad came down this weekend to celebrate christmas. they rented a guest suite for a couple nights, my sister stayed over, we opened presents, and battled upon the scrabble board.

if you remember from a previous post, my dad dominates this game. and he does it by spelling words like "job" and "zen." (kate knows my pain)

BUT

the impossible happened, and he was defeated last night. he had played all of his tiles, left the table to get comfy on the sofa, and proceeded to watch tv, leaving us to accumulate what few points we possibly could in the wake of his ridiculous score. but we had a couple more turns, and mom ultimately TRIUMPHED (by using a blank tile, no less!!)

it was a victory by FOUR POINTS.

dad's comment was, "good! someone else can carry that burden."

mom and dad came to mars hill this morning, braving the weather and the 11 o'clock crowd. afterwards we went out for lunch, meeting up with lisa, and then they headed home.

when we left, it was bitterly cold, snowing, and my eyelids wanted to freeze shut. this is me. i will be dressing warmer than this for the trek to the 6:00 o'clock service.

thus concludes my updates from the past week. you will be hearing from me again in the next few days, as i have a week of no assignments to travel to. i'm looking forward to some much-needed R & R.

love to you all

and merry christmas!!

rie

snow and lights

2007-12-16T16:06:00.000-05:00

it's that time of year... where the calendar is suddenly full of events and engagements... parties and family... food and food and food and more food.

this was christmas party day at Sue's Loving Care, where chris works. after traveling to illinois the day before, we stayed at chris' parents' house. chris had to work the next day, and then there was the party. i even did something very out of character.... i went to meijer to buy ingredients (holy lots of people in that store, batman) and made those christmas joy cookies that nate's wife brought to the cookie swap.... BIG HIT!

after working and partying (read: eating, eating, playing sudoku, eating some more) we took a quick trip over to battle creek to check out their "International Festival of Lights."

not pictured: "the 12 days of christmas" IN LIGHTS. (i'm not kidding!)

it was cold, not crowded, and full of lights (and burnt out lights). while at first glance i would say it was a little disappointing (for being an international festival), it was fun to walk around, see the pretty lights, walk through downtown battle creek

(which is more quaint than i remember it)

and then leave.

it's a wonderful life

2007-12-15T15:19:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the delay. Life has been crazy. But I'll get to that soon enough, friends :) For now, i want to share some photos of our excursion to joliet, illinois.

the weather was very cooperative and we made a stop at applebee's in benton harbor for dinner. supper. dinner. supper. for an evening meal.

chris laughs at curt's joke.

The Rialto Square Theatre

we were a little concerned when we first pulled into the town of joliet, because it was a little scary. and then our directions (thank you, mapquest) wanted us to turn the wrong way on a one-way street. but we found our way, and when we turned onto the street above, we knew everything would be okay.

we weren't exactly sure what to expect of this theatre, but here's the view of part of the inside, while we're standing in line, waiting for the doors to open. a drunk footlocker employee (or at least attired as such) tried to cut in line. we don't think he KNEW he was cutting, he just stood/stumbled-in-place where he wanted...which was right in front of us. the distinguished older ladies he stood next to remarked to one another, "It smells like a brewery!" chris found some security people and he was soon being watched very carefully. eventually his stumbling-in-place led to a fall-on-his-keister, and he got to sit in a chair. which we soon walked past as we made our way into the theatre auditorium. it's like the show BEFORE the show!!! man, the entertainment never ends!!

while we waited for the show to begin, we got to listen to the magical organ that disappeared below the stage when the sing-a-long was done. that's right, there was a holiday sing-a-long before the show. lyrics were provided in our program, but the people leading it just kind of hopped around, sometimes mid-song. kept us on our toes.

christopher with the merry mulders!

the cast waves a final goodbye

who says maintenance isn't exciting?! look at that high-speed action!

as the actors read through their scripts, instead of folding paper back, they just let them drop to the floor. so deliciously irresponsible!

curt nearly gets us kicked out, but chris shush-es him just in time. ;)

(for chris' synopsis of our experience, read here!)

50 Questions About Christmas

2007-12-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

1. Does your family send out Christmas cards? my mom does. Chris and I have been VERY inconsistent with the sending of yuletide greetings. we're "on" this year, though. if we have your addresses, that is...

2. How soon do you start shopping? all year long is my preference...but this year we started in october.

3. Who do you shop for? family and close friends. and white elephant gift recipients.

4. Do you put up a Christmas tree? it would be sacrilege in our home if we didn't.

5. If so, is it fake or real? it is fake. we found out too late that our apartment complex allows real trees. BUT, we also put our tree up before thanksgiving usually, so fake is more practical.

6. Do you like tinsel? I'm indifferent. it was fun as a kid, but now it just gets everywhere. the cat loves it, though. so we didn't put any out this year, and so far I don't miss it.

7. Do you use homemade or store bought ornaments? store bought. our new tree is frickin' huge and we just bought a mass of red and green ones. there might be one "homemade" one, but it was more of an accident than anything.

8. Do you put Christmas lights outside your house? this is chris' favorite time of year, and so there are definitely lights out on the balcony.

9. Do you put lights on the tree? wouldn't be a christmas tree without lights! this tree is pre-lit, which I love.

10. How about popcorn and cranberries? I like popcorn with chocolate and carmel, but not on the tree. three words: TOO MUCH WORK. you're lucky I'm sending christmas cards.

11. Is there a wreath hanging on your door? ha! yes...but not the creepy one with the snowman on it that my sister despises... that one's hanging on a wall in our apartment...

12. Do you celebrate Christmas Eve? I'm with jami on that...silly question. I think we're celebrating somewhere ON christmas eve... I can never remember. when I was a kid we always went to my grandma's on christmas eve, so there was never any waiting for christmas morning for anything.

13. Do you hang up your stocking? yes. and one for the cat. it's empty.

14. Does your family read "Twas the night before Christmas?" no. I don't think we ever have.

15. Christmas Movie: I'm assuming this is supposed to be a favorite.... tough, but it would have to be "the grinch" with jim carey. it's way too quotable and I laugh so hard every time I see it. (elf is a close second, though)

16. Character from any Christmas Movie: another favorite? the grinch. of course.

17. Christmas Song: ave maria by harry connick, Jr.

18. Christmas Memory: last christmas at the kung fu christmas party.... the best white elephant gift EVER: a bedpan.

19. Give or Receive? oh, to give. I'm always way more excited to watch people open up their presents :)

20. Eggnog or Cider? good lord... cider. COLD, not hot. blech.

21. Red or Green? as if there's any question.

22. Ham or Turkey? Turkey.

23. Star or Angel? definitely a star. I've never been big on angels.

24. White Lights or Colored Lights? hmmm.... colored lights are more nostalgic, but this year we have white lights on the pre-lit tree, white lights on the porch, and colored lights around the slider, and red lights around one of the lamps.

25. Blinking Lights or Still Lights: blinking can be annoying, that's for sure, so still. we do have the kind that sloooooowwwwly twinkle/fade in and out, out on the porch.

26. Were you Naughty or Nice this year? I was mostly sarcastic. right in the middle.

27. What do you want for Christmas this year? a DS and the new zelda game :)

28. When do you open your gifts? when we can't wait any longer! (I know... it's sad) when I was a kid we always opened gifts early because we went to my grandma's christmas eve, so i have no reason to feel bad about not waiting for christmas morning.

29. What's the best gift you've ever gotten? it's a tossup between a video ipod and a diamond necklace.

30. What's the worst gift you've ever gotten? honestly I can't think of anything

31. Who gives you the most gifts? christopher

32. Have you ever had a secret Santa? sounds like a question for santa, not me.

33. Do you like wrapping gifts? yes... but a little TOO much... I lightened up on the tape this year.

34. Do you put change in those red buckets? no.

35. Do you burn a yule log? there is a nasty joke just waiting to happen with this question....

36. Can you name all the reindeer? yes! and don't forget Chet!!

37. Do you bake cookies? I did this year. a whopping 11 of them.

38. Have you ever seen your mommy kissing Santa Clause? thank goodness, no.

39. Have you ever gotten a kiss under the mistletoe? probably, but I don't recall

40. Do you go caroling? man, I haven't done that in years. but we're hoping to get a crowd together to go caroling down the kent trail sometime...

41. Do you drive around and look at the Christmas lights? not really.

42. Have you ever left Santa cookies? hmm. maybe.

43. Have you ever sat on Santa's lap? yes. when I was 26.

44. Who do you celebrate Christmas with? chris, my family, chris' family, and chris' mom's family.

45. Where do you celebrate Christmas? Cadrapazoo.
(cadillac, grand rapids, kalamazoo) hehee

46. Have you ever had a white Christmas? this is michigan. what a goofy question.

47. What part of Christmas do you look most foward to? breaking out all the christmas movies, because there's really not any other acceptable time to watch them the rest of the year

48. Have you ever had your picture taken with Santa? yes. when I was 26. do I have to keep saying it?!! oh...and this year, too...one of my co-worker's dad is a professional santa (he even goes to santa school -- not kidding) and bestowed christmas cheer at our company party this year.

49. Does your family always take a picture at Christmas? no.

50. Have you ever heard the song "Thank God For Kids" by The Oakridge Boys? yeah, I think so. is that even a christmas song? so wierd.

it's a dismal day. let's reflect on something else.

2007-12-14T09:09:00.000-05:00

it's pretty busy here at the gull road beaner's this morning. i took the day off, so I'm in comfy clothes, and in no hurry. I blew my voice out this past weekend, and a cold (or some other disaster) has settled in my nose and throat... at least, whatever it is, it's scaring all the mucus out. so i figured I wouldn't try to visit my sister-in-law and 5-month-old niece. bummer. because I don't get down here all THAT often. but I will see them tomorrow at chris' work christmas party... I may have to wear a mask, though ;)

which makes me laugh because I did something funny this week. a friend of mine recently told me that she went to see an allergist because she's been getting sick every fall. she figured it was because she's a teacher and is around kids all the time. well, it turns out she's allergic. to everything living and breathing. so what did I do?! this week I gave her a gift to help her cope.... some medical gloves and mouth-masks!! >:) hehehe

chris painted our bedroom this week. three times. that's what we get for wanting it to be some hue of RED. but it looks awesome and warm. I love color. I also love color-ING. I haven't done it in awhile, but my friend, alan close, is creating the most awesome coloring book ever.... complete with trucks and a jeep and mud and other boy-ish things. I'll probably buy 10.

just for me.

it's interesting how music and voices and other such things spark our memories. certain songs take you back to that one summer, or a smell evokes certain nostalgic emotions, or the person sitting at the next table sounds just like an old friend and you involuntarily stare.

yesterday a song came on, and I didn't even have to hear the whole thing. lisa and I had been in traverse city, and while at the christian book store at the mall, we bought a tape that was on clearance for $2. just for fun. totally an impulse purchase. we LOVED it, wore it out, bought another one... later I got the CD. and that's all I think about when I hear anything from it... me and lisa, driving around traverse, windows down and sunroof up. it's not necessarily music that stands the test of time or anything (though years later I discovered the artist was rob bell's college roommate), but it literally represents a particular moment in my life that I love remembering.

the guy sitting at the table in front me just farted.
I HEARD IT!
let's hope I don't smell it.
>:E

anyway, that's what I was just thinking about yesterday. today I'm mostly just conscious of the mucus in my nose that forces me to sniffle, and the fact that I can't exactly take deep breaths without having to cough something up. real pleasant stuff.

promise delivered: SNOWMAN!

2007-12-13T18:45:00.000-05:00

so last week i was part of a cookie swap. i was super excited, because i had recently acquired jeep wrangler cookie cutters. (i know. frickin' sweet.)

for the cookie swap i also had a great idea for a display:

chris with burl ives...er...i mean, a snowman. i mean, we could name him beowulf...

this almost happened...but piscin got lucky and we didn't take her:

so we took our own FAN-tastic picture! doesn't she look happy?!

lostness sucks when it's slushy

2007-12-11T19:44:00.000-05:00

one of the most confusing places I sometimes travel to is downtown lansing. I'm not there often enough to really have a comfortable sense of where the heck I'm going, and the weather this morning was less than accommodating, so I left 30 minutes early. kent county was nasty...I didn't dare drive over 60 miles an hour, for fear of my life and the potential loss of vehicle-uprightness. closer to lansing the roads were merely wet, not slushy, and speeds closer to the limit were acceptable. I arrived at my destination with 15 minutes to spare...15 minutes to park and get to the correct building.

so after driving around the block and realizing all these buildings are kind of in a quadrangle (the picture below was taken from the middle of said quadrangle, or whatever the heck it is)

I finally just decide to park along one of the streets at a parking meter (where I lost 2 of my quarters because I didn't realize it's only good for 1 hour...shoot) and then march off to find my destination.

unfortunately, all I have is the address of the building, WHICH THEY DON'T PUT ON THE SIDES OF THE BUILDINGS THAT ARE FACING THE INTERIOR OF THE STUPID QUADRANGLE. (I like the word quadrangle because it sounds how it makes me feel...tangled and confused) So after a few minutes -- which feels like more, I can assure you, because of the slushiness of the ground and non-warmthness of the air -- I finally get to the right building. (I even asked for directions from a friendly passerby....shocking, I know)

Then, after two hours of depping (as my sister calls it), it was finally time to head home. Fortunately, though the sign by my parking meter said "Meters Enforced", I did not have a ticket...though I had WELL exceeded the one-hour limit. Score! (and while I could have paid to park safely in the parking lot on my immediate right, sometimes I like to live on the edge)

and now, my tired friends, I leave you to have a restful evening. sort of. I promise to post tomorrow with some random pictures that will make you smile, and maybe laugh.

I'll give you one clue: snowman!

F Day

2007-12-05T10:45:00.001-05:00

the 2nd annual frankenmuth field trip

celebrating with friends, fried chicken, fudge, festive lights, frolicking*

starting the day:

jenny & dwight wade, tasha wright,

troy "call me Peep" hatfield, liz bremer, chris dornan

while "bear hugs" are safe between humans, here i am demonstrating the proper way to hug an actual bear: not too tightly, feet in starting-block position, and face not too close to the fangs.

is it sad that i didn't get the joke right away?

there's nothing quite like a family style dinner at the bavarian inn: servers in feathered hats and wench outfits, all the fried chicken and butter noodles and mashed potatoes and beets you can eat, learning that santa quit smoking since we saw him last (way to go, santa!), and being thankful for forgetting to wear a belt. if ever there's a time to wear your eatin' pants, this is it.

troy and the boys

appropriate because troy loves lederhosen.

chris sees dwight sitting on one of his sheep...

i don't believe in hats

neither does jenny.

the sign said not to climb on or touch the people.

troy was adamant that camels aren't people.

i think he's flipping us off. it's hard to tell.

all in all, a good day: good food, good friends, good humor.

jenny got an elephant that poops cigarettes

and elizabeth made out like a bandit at bronners.

(not made out with a bandit . . .

though that would have been MUCH more entertaining)

highlight of the day:

dwight screeching like a girl while we all ran across the street.

too bad you can't take a picture of that!

while we had a gorgeous, clear, non-precipitativous day in the 'muth,

the weather became grumpy once we got back on the highway.

it took an extra hour to make the return trip home.

and it was cold outside. just ask jenny!

and how did we decide on which gas station to stop at?

the one with the marquis that said "cleanest bathrooms" of course!

because if the sign says it, it must be true.

*optional

anyone miss me?

2007-11-29T15:52:00.001-05:00

the last ten days have been so busy and I'm pooped.we've relocated to the southwest side of town and have a super cute apartment. it's our favorite by far, which is saying something. there's even a crik!

(for those of you wondering, our tree is up and there are presents beneath it) piscin is NOT happy about the tinsel situation.

my now 29-year-old sister had all four of her wisdom teeth pulled monday morning, so the last three days have involved lots of soft food, CSI Miami, Hitman and a visit from mom. lis goes back to work today, so she had a nice reprieve.

lisa is now a year from turning 30...which is kind of freaky honestly. we celebrated with burgers and steak fries......and a little sillyness.

thanksgiving I spent hanging out with my sister and finally BEATING the legend of zelda wind waker. it was very intense because I was super frustrated (I confess... I lost my cool) but I eventually triumphed. meanwhile we ate mcdonalds and each drank a 2-liter of soda.

this is where I've been finding piscin at least a couple times a day. I'm not sure if it was the scary leaf blower or it's just warmer there or what.

so that's what I've been up to. I'm trying to get my work done during the day so I can play at night, or at least relax, so I'm going to sign off for now and try to accomplish a little more. but it feels good to be saying hello to you all again ;)

trying to quit...and the season's first

2007-11-19T08:59:00.000-05:00

i have an addiction. it's not particularly shameful, but it sometimes is a little embarrassing, especially when chris points it out and shakes his head. i had been abstaining for awhile, but the other day i got a little carried away.

i like to take pictures of my cat.

but she's so cute! and freaking funny!

and I swear I know what she's thinking.

usually once I take one picture, I end up sitting around for a good half hour at least trying to get just the right angle, or her to turn just such a way...it's quite sad really. but hilarious when it turns out right!

the first christmas tree sighting of the season!!

there's really only one drawback to driving a jeep. you're not exactly "protected" from the elements... and it especially sucks when you're wearing a black suit and all of a sudden dust is blowing in because there's construction going on across the street... it's not dandruff, really!!

last but not least, we move in four days. it's terribly exciting, especially since we have made some giant strides in minimizing and simplifying. we started packing last week and had to stop because there really wasn't much more to do until closer to the move. it's a new feeling for us. so far the weather does NOT look like it's going to be much of a help. but regardless we're ready to paint rooms yellow and apple red (not redrum like my last little office room...and I promise the walls won't look like they're bleeding!)

hehehe

2007-11-16T13:00:00.001-05:00

last week chris' parents were up in grand rapids for a seminar. after their seminar they were going to come over and pick up a shelf that we won't have room for in our new apartment.

they called me when they were done so as to get directions to our apartment. I was at beaners (obviously) so drove home right away to meet them. their seminar was a lot closer than I originally thought.

as I pulled in the drive to our complex I got another call. my father-in-law was so hungry he couldn't wait anymore, so they stopped at a subway and wanted to know if I could join them. of course I could, so I pulled a quick u-ey in the driveway and got there in a couple minutes.

as we're standing in line and ordering, just chit chatting about their seminar and being a little goofy, as we all are, the subway guy said THE funniest thing to us.

He looked at us after a while and said, "Are you all related? Because I see a resemblance..."

oddly enough...NONE of us are blood relatives...we're all technically related by marriage!!!

I think we made the subway guy feel kind of bad for how hard we all laughed, but it was a sweet thing to say. :)

my boring life :)

2007-11-15T12:03:00.000-05:00

when you're in a hurry to get to the bathroom, it's really annoying when the bathroom door is one that shuts on its own....and is agonizingly slow...and no matter how hard you push on it, it doesn't move any faster.

----------

that was yesterday. today, my deps cancelled so I'm breathing very easily and staying on top of my other assignments. it's a good feeling and I desperately hope I can maintain it. I don't tend to finish things well, and I'm not well-disciplined, so it always feels like such a struggle. especially when I could be doing things like biking with my sister or BEING SO CLOSE TO FINISHING ZELDA WIND WAKER! (jami, I'm soooooo close!!!)

here's how my holiday season is shaping up: next week we're moving (and the tree is immediately going up), the week after that we're caravanning by camel (okay, not really) to frankenmuth, and the week after that I'm participating in a cookie swap (and I will be using my two brand-new cookie cutters...guess what shapes they're in!!!!), the week after that we're traveling to joliet, illinois for a stage production of a radio broadcast of "it's a wonderful life," the weekend after that my parents are coming to the Grrrrrr to have christmas down here (hooray!)

chris has already broken out the christmas movies, and when I come home there's a different one playing every night. these are my most favorites christmas movies and my favorite lines to quote:

The Grinch -- "Hate-hate-hate, hate-hate-hate, LOATHE ENTIRELY." and "oh, martha! oh, christmas!" (there are many more...this is my favorite xmas movie to quote!!)
Elf -- "bye, buddy. hope you find your dad." "thanks, Mr. norwal."
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation -- "SQUIIIIIRRRRREL!!!!!!"
A Christmas Story -- "daddy's going to kill ralphie!"

when DAD goes shopping...

2007-11-12T14:15:00.000-05:00

...this is the kind of thing he buys!

(a 1947 military issue jeep, if you're not sure what you're looking at)

christmas is in the air...

2007-11-10T12:57:00.001-05:00

I told chris not to, but the other day he fed one..... ...and now look!!!

last night was my work's christmas party. this year it was held at soaring eagle casino in mt. pleasant. while we didn't win anything on the casino floor this year, we did manage to get there without acquiring a speeding ticket.

we did have a special guest...

and one of our owners didn't approve of our special guest's performance while playing "left right center"...

...a new game we will be MORE than happy to teach you that requires NO skill whatsoever...here's marcy's mom, marcy and christopher playing

and the pile of money i won :) (the winner at each table met for a final confrontation ... which i did not win)

though we couldn't stay overnight because i was singing at church the next morning, we enjoyed the party (not the getting lost on the way home, though). i succeeded in making one of the owners feel realllly old when i told him about all the funny small-world connections i have with the company (and ultimately how young i really am), won some money, lost some money, had some great conversations and laughed a lot. and discovered from christy, baker extraordinaire, that there are such things as edible paper and edible ink.

TAG

2007-11-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

tag . . .

Here's how you play....once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with ten random facts, habits, or goals about yourself. At the end, choose ten people to tag, listing their names and why you chose them; don't forget to leave a comment on their page letting them know "tag you're it". You cannot tag the original people/person back that tagged you first, but let them know when you have posted so they can read your blog.

1. When I was a kid I had a hamster named Whiskers. He was also the main character in a book I attempted to write called "Hamsterdam."

2. The last time I recorded an album was four years ago. I haven't done anything with it yet. I've only just recently started making plans to finish it.

3. I have a freckle on the end of my nose.

4. I love stores that specialize in office supplies. I could wander around staples or office max for hours just looking and dreaming and coming up with "reasons" to buy stuff. I mean, who doesn't need to reorganize their filing cabinet every month?!

5. Driving calms me down. Whether I'm angry, excited, sad or just wound up, driving centers me. I think more clearly. I don't have to drive to a specific location or any particular distance...just around for awhile.

6. I put a ridiculous amount of time into composing e-mails (or silly lists) because I'm constantly worrying about how I worded it, or if it's serious enough, or if something could be taken wrong, or if I'm being too crazy, or if I sound boring, or if it's unnecessarily complicated, or any number of things. Even if it asks for just a "yes" or "no," I way overthink my response. If it's an e-mail about something I'm organizing, it's possible I've been drafting it for weeks.

7. I'm named after my two grandmothers: Marie - a version of Mary, which was my Grandma DeYoung's middle name. Alice - my Grandma Sheldon's first name.

8. I'm perfectly comfortable and confident going to movies all by myself or eating dinner at a restaurant alone.

9. If I'm at the hairdresser or in a waiting room somewhere, I make sure to read at least one article in a sports magazine. I always learn something interesting, and then when I talk to Chris about it later he thinks I'm really hot.

10. I can type 129 words a minute.

The 10 people I will chase around the internet to TAG (hopefully before they reach the monkeybars that are "safe") are:

KatieKate - because I like her a lot and she has a really big heart
Lisa - because she drives a zamboni. enough said.
Mom - because it's fun to learn random things I didn't know
Elizabeth - because she loves to dress up in pink wigs and 80's prom dresses for my treasure hunts
Jami - because she loves Lost and Zelda and I respect that
Hannah - because she's a cool kid and I haven't seen her in four years
Tasha - because this will give her something to put on her myspace page
Ashley - because kindred spirits can be discovered anywhere
Kaylee - because she has amazing perspective and insight
Diane - because we know the same people and somehow have never hung out yet
Piscin - because she's not human.

an annual* tradition

2007-11-06T10:50:00.000-05:00

10 or 11 years ago I moved into my first apartment. I was starting my fourth year (out of five) of college and was SO ready to be officially "on my own" (my greatest dream). since then I've moved *AT LEAST once a year. I've moved mid-lease to live nextdoor to friends at the same complex, I've sublet, broken leases out of fear, lived in someone's living room for a couple weeks, lived in a hotel, tolerated termites, lived in a 10x10 room with the in-laws (both of us, that is), plotted against roommates, and lived on a lake I could float on every afternoon after work.

earlier this year I mentioned we were going to be moving and someone I know said, "well, of course you are." I think I remember who said it, and I remember being surprised because 1) I didn't ever think of moving as being something people would look at me doing and say, "of course! it's what you do!" and 2) i hadn't known the person that long for the pattern to be apparent to them...or so I thought...I could be wrong.

but moving....it's what I do.

as a kid I grew up in a small town...small church, small school. moving was something other people did. that we would ever move was about as preposterous as the thought my parents would ever get divorced; utterly ridiculous. my sophomore year of high school, though, the fam up and moved to cadillac. the week before school started we moved into the house on mosser street. down the street from the dairy queen. a few doors down from my grandma & grandpa sheldon. (that whole story in and of itself is a doozy, but we'll just say it was a rough summer.) we moved so my sister and I could have better opportunities at a bigger school. I went from a class of 30 to a class of 230. it was awesome. I went from a school where everyone had known me since kindergarten to a school where nobody had preconceived notions of who I was or who I could be.

I loved that feeling of starting over...starting fresh. I am the kind of person who struggles to finish things well. I get so pumped up to start things, but once I hit the middle mark, it's hard for me to stay focused and disciplined to see it through to the end. I get anxious to start something else.

since chris and I have been married, we've moved eight times. in six years. and we're moving again in three weeks. (this is one of the reasons why we don't own a house.)

and with each move we learn more about ourselves and who we want to be. we're finally making some headway in this art of simplifying... in being content with what we have... in discovering what we truly need... in finding creative ways to enjoy life without spending money we don't have...

it sure seems to have taken a long time for us to get to even this point. but I'm extremely thankful that we have learned the lessons we have, because there are places we know we don't ever want to be again.

so who knows what the future will hold...we may be moving again next year...maybe not. we're hoping to stay longer, but you really can't bank on that... and not just because moving is what we do :) I've experienced god's unmistakeable hand in taking care of us SO SPECIFICALLY in regards to jobs and moving (it's my ebenezer), and so I have no fear. well, maybe a little fear.

sorry for the rambling! it was just on my mind today. in both where I've lived and where I've worked, I've been in so many different situations. I've got to believe that it's all worthwhile...that it means something...and so seeing it in front of my face helps me think it through...to remember...and see those pieces, how and where they might possibly fit.

dance around

2007-11-03T03:01:00.000-04:00

i'm tired, but if i don't do this now, i'll forget, or i'll get lazy and not upload all the pictures you want to see. (let me know if i forgot one, ashley, but these are the best ones i think!)

tonight marked the first time in two years i've played an official gig. the kind where people have to be intentional about showing up for the purpose of seeing you. and what a great night! i don't have any pictures of myself, obviously, since i was a little busy...but i have great pictures of some of my friends who came out to support and love on me.

that (and two glasses of smithwicks) really made me feel special.

while not as brave as some, we still had our picture taken with the mines as our backdrop. there were at least two or three groups of girls who ran up to the stage for a photo op.

jenny, me and lisa getting ready to depart.

so if you don't know my sister very well, she likes to makes these drawings

(or drawrings, if you prefer) and she wanted to make a sign for me for tonight. it's classic lisa.

i have three hairs on my head, am potentially projectile vomiting (but i think it's supposed to indicate singing) and the audience is really funny. here's a closeup:

i love these guys. and that's not the smithwicks talking.

i do a horrible dr. evil impression. perhaps i'm calling my mini-me...

ashley rules!

it looks like this picture was intentionally taken of three people. it was not.

dwight just naturally fits in wherever he goes :)

dance around! (the troy hatfield way)

there are lots of lovely people that are not pictured above who came, cheered, and i got to hug. the evening was full of surprises (i pulled out 4am by our lady peace, and simple kind of life by no doubt) and lots of people stopped by that i wasn't expecting. that was amazing.

kate and jami, your words this week and your presence tonight were the coolest.

i'm so glad i know you, and for many more reasons than this!

but not both? whatever dude.

i'm sure there will be more pictures posted over on ike's blog. hooray!

a little honesty

2007-11-01T12:04:00.000-04:00

so I'm just putting this out there, in case anyone reads it and has a moment. my husband tries to get me to see these things clearly so I don't worry, but I'm still human.

right now (and since yesterday) I am in a constant state of inner panic. tomorrow night I'm playing at the black rose, opening for the mines. I haven't played a gig in two years (literally almost to the day) and just thinking about it right now makes me tense and panicky inside. it'll be fun, and I'm sure it'll be fine, but I'm terrified right now and can't seem to relax. this is the reason why so many times in my past I have bailed at the last minute for things. i'm not in danger of bailing on the mines, some of my favorite people, but I'm just hoping that my fear and anxiety will lessen.

I have lots of typing to do right now, so I can't even practice or anything, which usually helps me to think clearly, plan for the show, and realize I don't sound like a frog and everything really will be okay.

I'm such a freak. so anyway, if you get a moment, i would appreciate any little prayer for my panic. is that selfish? I don't know. but I'm almost in tears right now, so I really don't care.

oh, the things you'll see

2007-11-01T11:13:00.000-04:00

unfortunately this post does not include a trip to texasnorth as i read kate's blog a little too late this morning, but thankfully she has been loved. I'll just keep clicking my heels, though, and maybe someday I'll get there. ;)

I begin my day with the following image:
I am hustling on some typing that I'll be turning in this afternoon. when I went to plug in my power cord, I didn't see it. until I sat back up. you gotta love that my first thought was, "I've got to get a picture of this!"

(and yes, it's still there)

lastly, this is (one of the reasons) why I love my church! and also why I'm so entertained by Mr. tim sayers, newly-married man. can anyone else name the other instrument tim has been seen (and videotape recorded) attempting to play relative to mars hill? he cracks me up. and 50 points to anyone who can name his high school band instrument!! (give it your best guess...50 points could be yours!!!!)

hunting for a 40th surprise

2007-10-28T04:04:00.000-04:00

friday night was go night for a surprise birthday treasure hunt. while it centered around the birthday boy, it was his wife's idea to make it a team competition regardless. everyone participating had a great competitive spirit....they raced to locations, pretended to give up so others wouldn't know they'd solved a clue, and the birthday boy even stole someone's car keys to try and slow them down!

something new we tried was have some checkpoint secret agents involved that the birthday boy knew....including his sister (sporting the chameleon) and his two children. there were some other friends involved, and even a local business in on it.

rebecca's goal was to completely surprise her husband, and he had no idea what the evening held for him. he came home, blindfolded, to a house full of friends from various groups he's involved in, and 20 minutes later they hit the road.

each team had been instructed to have with them a road bike, running shoes, scissors, flashlights for everyone, and an unmarked apple.

the first team (Team Chewbacca) showed up at the final location after 3 hours 16 minutes... having run two blocks because someone (who just turned 40) stole their keys... the next team showed up one minute later. and though the birthday boy's team (Team Spaceman Spiff) didn't win, there were two more surprises for him. the first was evident when he showed up, because there were dozens of people there to celebrate him, complete with a spray painted "happy birthday" sign on the back garage wall.

the final surprise was a "we're glad you exist" treasure book. his wife snuck his phone from him in the middle of the night to get email addresses from all the people in the world that he knows. i sent them each a questionnaire and then compiled all the answers into a 250-plus page book of people describing what they admire about him, what their favorite memory is of him, advice for getting older, and so on. there were also two CD's, one a grouping of songs that his friends say remind them of him -- the other contained songs his friends thought should belong on his life soundtrack.

i've got a lot of thoughts and feelings and updates for you on all this, but i was totally beat and slept like a rock afterwards. and i wanted to get something up here before too much time goes by :) so.... more to come on that!

i spent today mostly relaxing and reflecting -- all good! -- and then chris and i spent some time with our elizabeth and wades. there was soda, 7-layer dip, el matador chips, grape smirnoff (someone read my mind!) and lots of winning and losing at squabble and cranium. jenny impersonated ed mcmahon, i road the ottoman like a pro bull rider, and dwight and chris knew waaaaaay too many answers to the girl questions (it was a guy versus girl thing).

oh. and there were candy apples. did i forget to mention that?

visitors

2007-10-23T16:22:00.001-04:00

it's been so long since i've had time to update my blog....everything has just been accumulating! last week, i think, was probably the last bike outing for the year. it was chilly, but we braved it, and had both dam dogs and ice cream. elizabeth had a toad moment ("flushed away" reference) when a yellow & black creature tried to hang out with us

chris and his dad fit some golf in at saskatoon, and though we're moving in just three weeks, this time he actually saw our apartment! unfortunately, he left his parking lights on when they left to go golfing, so he returned to a dead car.

i came home to this scene unfolding, and made sure that we took every precaution to protect our neighbors and chris' dad, and put out the orange triangle thingie. i think we all breathed a little easier after that.

i hart a four-wheeled adventure

2007-10-23T16:09:00.000-04:00

this past week i did a little driving. for work i was assigned to travel to montague, hart and lyons. since i hadn't been on the road in awhile, i decided to explore, and saw some interesting things. in hart there was a restaurant called "That Place," a forklift crossing sign, and the Pink Elephant Diner. as i was getting to hart, the blue sign on the highway (you know, with the map symbols, like for camping, etc.) actually had a square with a big question mark...I don't know what that means! I expected to see more ORV's, being in such close proximity to the silver lake sand dunes, but it WAS only 8:35 in the morning...and I was totally bad ass cruising around in my red wrangler, blaring vivaldi, of all things. and the local doctor, the witness that day, used the phrase "jiminy crickets." on my way out of town i thought i saw something interesting, and turned towards the lake. there was nice little roadside/lakeside park memorial with flags, a small monument and this jet. i didn't have a chance to walk in the park across the lake, but if i ever get sent back there it's at the top of my list.

on my way to lyons i passed some large farm equipment on the road. the town itself was smaller than Manton, where i grew up. the dam i saw on my stroll in looked like it had potential, and was quite picturesque with all of the leaves turning. i got to town pretty early, so i tooled around a little and actually saw a handicap crossing sign.

rubbing your eyes won't help

2007-10-23T13:21:00.000-04:00

my favorite musical moments

2007-10-22T20:29:00.001-04:00

thinking about my previous blog about the symphony got me thinking about other moments that have been significant to me musically. some are silly, some are weepy, but hey, that's who I am :)

i had seen josh groban's cd at best buy, but for some reason assumed he was just like john mayer...maybe because they have similar first names and they came out about the same time. I don't know. but chris was watching the 2004 superbowl and I saw this guy in a jacket and scarf start singing. I was mesmerized and involuntarily sat down on the edge of the sofa and found myself moved to tears. I cried from the beginning of the song to the end. I felt like my life had changed it was so breathtakingly gorgeous.

every time the band mutemath comes to Grand Rapids we go see them. one time they were here at the intersection and there were three opening bands. the first two did nothing for me; typical rock, nothing special, not even good. UBER yawn. the last band, from the moment they began playing, made me sit up and take notice -- literally. they were disco, they were rock, they were everywhere on stage, they were unique, they were ridiculous, and they weren't pretending...they sold it from head to toe, note to note, from move to move. they were "under the influence of giants." I was grinning and laughing, and hoping very hard that i wouldn't be scorned for absolutely loving them.

selfishly, I have a couple favorite personal musical moments. the first is when I sang at my sister-in-law's wedding. she and adam had asked if I would write a song for them, which I did, and it rested in the imagery of a shooting star from a meaningful story they shared with me. I felt great about the song and what it meant. and even though I was nervous to play and sing it (as always) and felt very self-conscious in my dress (I was a bridesmaid who had gained a lot of weight), as I sat at the old upright piano and leaned over the keys, I had an almost out-of-body experience -- it was as though my very being, body and soul, was my voice as it hung in the air, and danced out over everyone in the pews. while time seemed frozen in those minutes, i felt most like myself.

that's it for now.

you knew this was coming

2007-10-22T17:30:00.000-04:00

thanks to the unseasonably warm weather, and the bike rack acquisition made earlier this year, i've been a bit tardy in my duties. but, a couple of filthy hands later, and on the heels of an exciting week, the bantam menace "suits up."

i have lots to update on here, so come back soon. like maybe tomorrow.

glimmer of sunshine

2007-10-18T11:19:00.001-04:00

it was the best kind of morning. it was rainy, not very cold, and a little overcast, all of which suited my mood perfectly. I avoided the highways because my car only has 40% of it's windows on, and while I don't mind getting rained on, frankly the idea of being around semis and other too-fast-for-the-weather-conditions vehicles scares the bantam menace a little. (he's heard the stories of my past mishaps and fears for his frame)

so I sat down to do some typing. I finished my last job last night at 11:13pm. this next one has to be turned in by tuesday, and it should be about 140 pages, so I'm starting it now. I've had a lot of typing days the last two weeks, and it's mostly because our office I think is having mercy (or pity) on me. which I appreciate. this doesn't always happen, though...the two weeks prior I had deps literally every single day, so the typing piled up because I was trying a tactic of only typing until 3pm every day (and that didn't really work, but I gave it a shot). it's so back and forth and balance is so hard to find, not to mention my bad habit of procrastination weaseling itself in there. but just the mere thought of a 9-5 job makes me miserable and feel confined, and all I did was think about it.

I haven't smiled yet today, thought I'm sure that will change tonight because when you're around suzanne and alan and the mines, the ridiculosity is quite palpable and you can't help yourself. we'll see if I feel like singing, though. I spent the drive listening to blue lake public radio. there's no salve quite like vivaldi. boy do I miss classical music sometimes. I forget how it makes me feel.

if you're into that kind of thing, I also highly suggest the composer arvo part. we took my dad to the symphony a couple years ago, and one of the pieces was cantus in memory of benjamin britten, by arvo part. the grand rapids sympthony was brilliant, and hearing it live was so moving I couldn't stop weeping (though quietly...we were in public). the recordings don't have quite that effect on me, but I would recommend them anyway. and palestrina....ahhhh, palestrina....

so the reason I hopped on here (now that I actually get around to it!) is that, when I started typing, I had forgotten something. as I was recording the deposition earlier this week, we had taken a 20 or 30 minute break. I wanted to make good use of the time (I had nothing else to do anyway but sit around) so I started typing the job from the beginning. in fact, I had typed 24 minutes of testimony! and I had forgotten. I mean, I still have three hours of testimony to go, but there's a good chunk of it I don't have to worry about :) <---there. my first smile of the day.

and while pandora.com does not have classical music I can listen to, I am thoroughly enjoying some jazz...miles davis to be exact, "dear old stockholm." which reminds me that, oddly enough, jazz band is the only thing about high school I miss.

today's accomplishments and this weekend's trouncing

2007-10-17T12:09:00.000-04:00

as you know, last week we bought some new pans. as chris and I have been talking about eating better, being active and just generally healthier, I decided to make a start today. last night we went grocery shopping...and for the first time in a long time I went with him. and I had fun! I wore comfy shoes so my feet wouldn't hurt, we had a list, and I had a couple ideas of things to make so I had a plan.

this morning, I made an omelette. friends, I have never made an omelette, nor did I have any idea how to do it. but I did it. I even made toast, cut a banana, poured some beverage, and shared all of it with chris. this may seem insignificant to you, but it was a big deal for me. I probably walked around saying "I made an omelette!" five or six times this morning. and the omelette wasn't even bad! it had green peppers, tomatoes, onion, fat-free cheddar cheese, eggs, salt and pepper, and some chicken I skillet-ized last night (using the lisa method)!

(the lisa method involves boiling frozen chicken and then just tearing it up and throwing it in a skillet to fry it, just without oil...the trick is throwing it correctly)

So anyway, that's today's accomplishment. i know we're barely in the afternoon, but it's enough of an accomplishment to just stop there for the day and raise my hands in victory :)

and here's me and liz on our bone-chilling white pine excursion on saturday. praise the almighty for dam dogs being open.

this past weekend my folks came down to visit. lately they've started staying overnight at our apartment complex in a guest suite. so basically they get to stay in an apartment overnight, complete with kitchen and furniture, TV and dvd player. they love it. we go out and buy food, they bring some down, and we just hang out. it's like a getaway for us all :)

this time, we roped dad into a foursome game of scrabble. his scrabble skills are legen-

wait for it...

-dary. so this was like our own form of mythbuster ;)

first of all, I apparently was behind in my drink quota.

dad is thinking hard (and maybe trying to pretend he's not falling asleep, I'm not sure!) but he comes up with great words like "whore," and "ho," "sob" (which we still believe he meant as an acronym!) and "gay." and THEN, only the second word into the second game, he throws out "zen" for a whopping 32 points. we played two games, and he beat us badly each game. no one else's score came close. he claims we're all smarter than him, but so far the scrabble record is

Dad: 2

Everyone else: ZERO

chris' patented cheese puff maneuver

and some pre-game meditating

laughter, sharks and UPS

2007-10-16T15:16:00.001-04:00

I'm a big fan of laughing. I know you're shocked. stunned. speechless, perhaps. but it's true. I remember being on the playground in grade school and other kids poking fun at me for my loud laugh. i wasn't the only one. jason bogroff also had a very loud laugh. in fact, someone suggested how horrible it would be if we had kids.

isn't it funny the things that mortify us as children?

anyway, I took such comments to heart. I immediately stopped laughing loudly at school. I actually stopped laughing at all. I didn't let loose again and really be myself again until I was in the 11th grade. I was walking down the long, separate hall to the choir room and decided (rather melodramatically, i'll admit, but I was 16 so what do you expect?) that I didn't have much of a childhood, so I'm going to enjoy myself now, and if anyone doesn't like it, too bad. I'm going to enjoy myself.

I believe the first thing I did upon entering the choir room was jump onto the chairs and refuse to touch the floor the whole hour because there were sharks. (I know, I know. but I was 16. that's my defense)(also in my defense, when I referred to "childhood" above, I meant my social interaction at school. overall my childhood was just fine. just ask my sister :P)

I still do things like this today, though. In so many situations I've been more concerned with fitting in, not annoying people, being "likeable" and conforming to what people expect that for awhile I had this behavior modification thing down. behavior modification is sort of like change, except that it doesn't fit you well. it's like wearing clothes that were tailored for someone who is taller and skinnier than you.

I started reading a book today about how you should focus on your strengths and not your weaknesses in helping determine what to do in life, or what kid of a role to carve out for yourself. it seems pretty common sense to me. but I remember working in a big company where you needed to be "well-rounded" and do a little of everything to get "the experience," do the jobs that are expected, take the promotions as they come or you get black-listed.

even though I really enjoy my job, I'm always interested in reading about different ideas on how to find a career you enjoy. while I'm no adrenaline junkie, I do love the thrill and excitement of change, and maybe deep down I assume that this job is just a place-marker until the next one comes along.

I also love taking different personality tests (which always seem like the grownup serious versions of the magazine tests, you know?) I never feel I ever really answered any of them right, which makes me feel a little wishy washy, and that I don't really know myself. I took at test once that revealed that I'm balance brained, smack dab in the middle, so maybe that's my problem. (sometimes I feel like taking these personality tests is a bit like reading your horoscope just for kicks...like it doesn't really matter, but it just might be right...)

so all that to say, too, that I'm now trying to make a list of what my strengths are. it's really hard, because it's so much easier to figure out what your weaknesses are. the book I'm reading defines a "strength" as something that you peform perfectly and consistently every time. I won't get into the difference between "strength" and "talent" right now, because I can't remember what the book said about that.

but so far, i think the strengths I can identify are:

1. focusing on one thing at a time to completion.

and that's it. I think that's a strength. oh well, back to my real work.

MUTEMATH

2007-10-12T23:36:00.000-04:00

kickin' it on the kent trail...with obligatory grape glacier and peanut butter cup/cookie dough blizzard-thingie

weeks ago we made plans to go see mutemath tonight at the intersection.

this afternoon, i got a call from dwight.

"what are you doing at 5 o'clock?"

"uhhh, i'm headed downtown to get in line," i said. "why?"

pause.

"do you want to meet the band?"

yeah.

dwight won tickets on WGRD today, and a chance to meet the band.

so a few phone calls later, chris made plans to leave work early and pick up dwight and jenny, and meet the freakin' band. go to dwight's blog soon for the super cool photographic evidence.

i think this is the first time we've attended a concert (intentionally) with a large group of people. all the girls: jenny, erin, rie, liz and tasha. yes, we're sitting at tables. yes, we're old. call us lame, and i'll kick your a**. ;)

little known facts about these girls: one of them is parallel-parking-challenged, but does okay if a navigator is involved. one of them likes to goose me when i'm not paying attention. both of them are GREAT road-trip friends. one of them becomes enraged while driving, and the other names all her cars the same thing.

erin, if you don't know, is my brother-in-law's sister. or my sister-in-law's sister-in-law. or chris' sister's sister-in-law. there's no way that it's not confusing. but we like her anyway :)

O-brrr-ron

7:13 a.m.

2007-10-11T07:13:00.001-04:00

there's nothing like starting your day with a mocha carmel in one hand, apple crumb cake on the table, and david gray's "shine" leading off the music rotation while I proof some typing.

it was still dark outside (when I started this), which (for some reason) makes everything seem even quieter here, even though there were three guys sitting by the fire chatting about the ghetto meijer (or "the club" as one guy called it, saying that's where lots of people go after the bars and the bob close, which I never knew) and the difference between a fistfight and using a gun. I don't make this stuff up. and they were older (like mid 30's) so I think it was more a commentary on the state of society as opposed to debating fighting strategies with the purpose of espousing one or the other. (though still not really the kind of conversation you want to hear while sitting a corner, the only exit blocked...though there were plenty of empty chairs I could have fought with if necessary...and I can be feisty when I need to...and loud...)

and now I totally forgot what I was talking about. see? fighting only distracts us from what we really want to be doing.

I discovered something about myself last night. I was sending a message to a friend of mine when I realized that after I would type a sentence, I would read it back over in my mind (I'm constantly proofing -- I can't help it!) but when I got to the period, I would intentionally (but subconsciously) GRIN really hard. almost as if my grin was trying to imprint itself into that sentence. but I did it after every sentence! it was so wierd...and I never really knew I did it. so, if I ever send you a message, you can trust that I probably was grinning at you through every sentence...though I probably make other facial gestures, too...(I just caught myself frowing at that sentence, with my lips puckered over to one side).

last night my husband called me a geek for knowing star trek trivia, and this is certainly not helping my image of normalcy. shoot.

beam me up, scotty.

typing day

2007-10-10T21:05:00.001-04:00

it's cold out. fall is unmasking itself a little bit today. i love it. as chris and i made a quick trip to the store for pans (which we had none), gift card in hand (that came in the mail today as a thank-you from my place of employment), i thought and felt like perhaps i am the best version of myself in the fall.

it was a strange thought to have, but i had it because i was really unconcerned about myself and actually enjoyed the non-important, random spontaneous trip with my husband. maybe it's also because i feel comfortable in my skin, since it's all covered up. because the cold is sort of calming -- it keeps me from being anxious, sweaty, and self-conscious in scanty summer-wear. (not that i ever wear anything that actually qualifies as scanty)

my work assignment today was a typing day. "typing day" means that i am not scheduled to record a deposition or wait around in court to play a video. "typing day" means exactly what it sounds like, that i actually have a day dedicated to type. the trouble i often run into is, while i have hours to do typing, i often spend those hours doing other things...while convinced in my mind (the mind of a card-carrying procrastinator) that i have plenty of time to meet all my deadlines. while this is often the case, there are days where (as i told my sister yesterday) the responsible thing to do is not play.

so today, on a responsible typing day, i have typed 51 pages so far. i have many more to go, but by being diligent (okay, pretty diligent) i can afford to not make my husband feel like an afterthought in my day. i feel very good about that. i can be so focused on my work to the exclusion of literally everything else (certainly a task-oriented worker) and so even this small victory of balance today is cause for celebration. and a chicken rotini salad for dinner with my husband (which is why we needed pans).

our pans are awesome. and they were on sale. i'm boiling water right now. "new" always makes the mundane more exciting. though we haven't actually cooked anything that doesn't require a microwave in eons, i had to look at the noodle box just in case, because i couldn't freely recall how to cook noodles. yes, i am that sad.

i'm hoping to be doing more cooking from now on. and aren't new pans just the best thing to help with that kind of a goal?! hehehehe

my parting thought is that being responsible (while it's not as fun as doing what you want, when you want) helps us keep life balanced, retain our sanity and not get in trouble. (sadly that's my greatest motivator most of the time)

my other parting thought is that you should get out your calendar and put november 2nd on it. plan to stay up past 10pm. set aside $3. start perusing the black rose's menu now (may i recommend the soda bread, shepherds pie or wexford fish sandwich?). print out directions off mapquest from your house to 100 ionia avenue, sw, grand rapids, michigan 49503. a band i know and love (the mines) will be playing there once again. and i have been invited to open for them.

helping of heinz

2007-10-07T20:25:00.000-04:00

last week it stormed a little bit, or at least there was lightning and thunder. and the thunder made the fire alarm go off in our building. it went on for awhile, and I tried to ignore it. oh, I checked the hall (yes, I touched the door first) and it was hellishly LOUD, and then went outside to look for smoke, but there was none. so I just decided to wait it out. and THEN I heard the sirens. quickly I packed a bag (it had chris' laptop in it, that's it) and grabbed my work bag and went out to my car. russ and sherry who live on the third floor were just standing on their porch. I pretended like I meant to leave and wasn't escaping a possible fire, of which there obviously was none. so I just stood around by my car, watching the firepeople get out and check everything out. I felt bad for them...all three firetruckloads of them...and there being no fire for them to battle with. though I was very happy for me ;)
this picture was taken tonight. we met up with liz to play some tennis, and now that we have tennis skirts we're all about wearing them. (I plan to wear mine when I walk or run on the kent trail...which we're moving mere yards from next month!) unfortunately, when fall really arrives, it gets dark a lot sooner. a LOT sooner. we ended up only being able to play for 1/2 an hour, and the only reason we actually finished a set was because liz and I were sucking it up. BAD. bad bad bad. chris won 6-0. BAAAAAAD.piscin recommends the book cold tangerines by shauna niequist.
this was a week or so ago. lisa and I hit up the KFC...and I broke my spork. yeah. I broke it trying to get it out of the wrapper. shoot. lisa laughed really hard at my face when it happened. (which is why I don't play poker...I couldn't hide my true emotions if I wanted to)

experience the white pine...

2007-10-06T23:45:00.000-04:00

what a fantastically great day! it began on the heels of an all-nighter type-fest (fueled by several hours of the mines, one smithwicks, a fish sandwich and manny's three-run homer) after at least two solid hours of sleep, i jumped into today. well, it was more of a sluggish creeping into the day, but i joined the day nonetheless. lisa and elizabeth began at riverside park, and met me in belmont. from there we ventured forth into rockford, for we were STARVING. we always take a bunch of pictures (and i'm wearing a different shirt this time!) so here are a few from today. praise god for the best dam dogs ever ;Penjoying our mid ride ice cream and gatorades...though it seems they might make us a little bit crazy...this looked like a lot of fun...make your own scarecrow!!! elizabeth's comment about some sample scarecrow-men (which would have been better if overheard out of context by a complete stranger) was "I like that man with the flannel and the tie and the jolly tummy!"in case you were wondering what it's really like to ride with us on the white pine, these are for you!!!

back in belmont we parted ways. i was not jealous that they had to bike farther, especially considering their foray into flasher territory (no sightings, though)

anniversaries and buried treasure...

2007-10-02T10:08:00.000-04:00

so, not only was saturday the 29th my 6th wedding anniversary......it was also a very exciting day for my favorite bass player. a couple months ago I was recruited to help him put together a treasure hunt for his girlfriend...so at the end he could ask her a very important question.we plotted to have the hunt the weekend after her birthday, in the hopes that she would actually believe that the event was for her birthday and nothing more. before a stranger approached her at the restaurant where they were having lunch (giving her only a key and an address) all she knew was he had something planned for her birthday. I saw her a couple nights before at gardellas, and she had no idea what was going on or what to expect, but she was pretty sure (99.99 percent, she said) that he wasn't going to propose (though coworkers and friends were sure he was). he had given her some clues as to what the day would hold, but none of them gave her cause for that kind of suspicion. ethan and ashley spent about 4 hours going all over town (kentwood, eastown, the gaslight village, downtown, grandville and wyoming) to solve clues, find hidden items and perform tasks, approaching the correct people to interact with... and getting their picture taken......sometimes unbeknownst to them :) in the hopes of suspending the inevitable, some clues contained "happy birthday" references to keep her thinking this was only a birthday surprise.there was a treasure map involved that led to buried treasure (the final destination being the location of their very first date) and ethan's chance to ask one of the most important questions a man can ever ask a woman. to which the answer was definitely in the positive ;)
there was a whole crew involved....waiting with clues, hiding across the street to take action shots, calling ahead when they left a clue site, and some even helped conduct a run-through to test the hunt out the weekend before. muchas gracias to all of you!and congratulations ethan and ashley!

fenian's

2007-09-20T09:45:00.000-04:00

six years ago i walked into schulers with the intent of finding some irish music to use for my wedding. one of the CDs i walked out with was a double-disc compilation from green linnet records. i was merely hoping to find some songs that would be great for the wedding....which i did.

and one song stopped me in my tracks.

i didn't expect that from instrumental irish music.

i was officially hooked.

tonight i got to see Lunasa for the second time. the first time was with tasha down in chicago at the old town school of music (also where we stumbled on The Mammals). tonight was a more intimate experience at fenian's (in conklin, mi) with chris, dwight & jenny.

the guinness and smithwicks flowed.

these are my favorite boys...trevor, kevin, cillian, sean and paul!

jenny practically drools as sean walks by :)

cillian playing by himself those Uilleann pipes i love so much!

i see you jenny wade...

like/dislike

2007-09-19T09:46:00.000-04:00

like: oyster crackers
dislike: a bee landing on my knee while I'm driving
(the HORROR!)

like: smithwicks
dislike: feeling like crap the next morning

like: being awake
dislike: getting up