Joy

It's November.

Do you know what that means?

That's right! It's Month 2 of the Christmas Season!

(Just like Wal-Mart, I start celebrating Christmas on October 1.)

(I don't shop at Wal-Mart, but if I did I'm sure I would see Christmas stuff starting in October.)

(I'm not too good for Wal-Mart, I just don't happen to shop there.)

(I'm from Missouri so I can't hate the Wal-Marts, but, well, you know...)

(Target.)

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It is full of tradition, good food, hanging out with people you love, yummy seasonal drinks at Starbucks, presents, festive decorations, many parties. It just is so wonderful.

To prove my point, I'm going to share with you a timeline of my 3-month long Christmas season and then you tell me it's not awesome.

Sept. 6: Seasonal drinks start at Starbucks with the release of the PSL, aka Pumpkin Spice Latte. I realize Christmas season is coming and I am stoked.

Oct 1: Christmas season starts. We start playing the "Pop/R&B Holidays" station on Pandora at work. Not all day every day, but it is enough to start getting pumped.

Oct. 31: Christmas Season Holiday #1: Halloween. I've always loved passing out candy on Halloween and you know I love me any chance to wear a ridiculous costume, but my love of Halloween has increased since moving to Williams. They do Halloween up right around here with kids of all ages running around town, people passing out candy everywhere, parties, haunted houses, etc. Things like Halloween are really made for small towns.

Nov. 1: Holiday Drinks start at Starbucks. Egg Nog Lattes are delicious though make me want to barf because they're so rich. And I get all my drinks in a festive red cup. My latte consumption increases 7-fold. (Seriously.)

Nov. 1: Half-price Halloween Candy. Enough said.

Nov. 8-13: I go to Boston to see my brother. This isn't really a tradition, but it is going to be awesome.

Nov. 13: Williams Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Lost Canyon. We invite the whole town to a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Lost Canyon. Seriously about a quarter of the town comes. Again, small town awesomeness.

Nov. 24: Christmas Season Holiday #2: Thanksgiving, aka Friendsgiving. Pumpkin cinnamon rolls while watching the parade. Cooking all day. Building a fire and doing the full-page crossword. Watching all the Friends Thanksgiving Episodes. And, this year only, Friendsgiving will be taking place in a house in Zion with 15 of my closest friends from Williams. This is guaranteed to be awesome.

Nov. 27: Williams Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting. There are no words to describe this event. It is something you must just see.

Nov. 28: My brother's birthday. I always waste the good present on this one and then don't know what to get him for Christmas, but it always means that we're really close to being home and acting like kids for a couple weeks. Christmas is near.

Dec. 1-20: December Christmas Movie Marathon at the Chateau. We play a Christmas movie a night, starting with Elf and including some of my personal favorites: Home Alone 1 and 2, Muppet Christmas Carol, Love Actually, and Charlie Brown Christmas.

Dec. 3-6: Debbie and Kate Go to New York. I'm returning to the Big Apple with my roommate who has never been. So we get to go see all the Christmas cheer: Rockefeller Center, store windows, Christmas markets, Broadway shows. My heart is happy simply thinking about it.

Dec. 14: Lost Canyon Staff Christmas Party. Last year this took place at something called the Winchester Steakhouse and included a country legends cover band. I can only imagine what this year will entail. It is rare that our entire staff is forced to be in social setting together and it always equals something really great.

Dec. 15: Housekeeping Half Day at Lost Canyon. Every month, one department on camp gets our whole staff for a half day so that you can get big projects done. It also is required that you include an hour of fun and games so that we get to just hang out. My month is December. So, I get a ridiculous amount of work done and I get to force my friends to do things like play telephone charades or do karaoke. I think you can see why this is awesome.

Dec. 17: Home to Missouri. The festivities really kick into high gear. I will meet my brother at the airport and immediately start laughing, arguing, and all around being loud. It's really the truest form of me.

Dec. 18: Mizzou vs. William and Mary. My dad hasn't told me for sure that this is happening yet. (Hint, dad.) But I'm going to go ahead and put it on the calendar. We always do one family sporting event per Christmas. Some years it was Blues games, but my parents have a suite at Mizzou games now, so we've made the switch. It always includes dinner somewhere in Columbia and strong moments of reliving my college years.

Dec. 20 (approximate date): Christmas Decoration Night. We will start by decorating our tree. Not the pretty tree because my mom will already have that up, but our tree with all our childhood ornaments. So ugly, so nostalgic, so great. This night will also include the traditional Tichelkamp Nativity Challenge. Whoever gets baby Jesus wins. I have a lot of wins built up, so my record is fairly secure.

Dec. 23 (again, approximate because my family hasn't made the switch to Christmas excitement quite the way I have): Moon Family Christmas. My mom's extended family. Cousins, aunts, uncles, all at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Doesn't matter how old I get, this is still a joy. (Various other extended family Christmases may or may not be included around this time, but they are less consistent because "people have their own families now." Grandma Moon will never fail us single people.)

Entire duration of trip home: Lots of satellite TV, lots of games, lots of food, lots of snarkiness. (Probably some drama- can family time go without it?)

Dec. 24: Christmas Season Holiday #3: Mom's House Christmas. We will have our traditional Christmas dinner. The dishes were chosen when my brother and I were 5 and 6 and my mom asked us, "What do you want for Christmas dinner?" We chose what we thought were the dishes you would serve at a fancy dinner. Some additions/subtractions have been made over the years, but the core stays the same: steak, shrimp from a box, pink salad (jello concoction for those of you not from the Midwest), broccoli cheese casserole, assorted candy/cookie plate for dessert (baked on Christmas Decoration Night). Dinner is followed by presents and then playing one of the games that we received as a family from Santa.

Dec. 25: Christmas Season Holiday #4: Dad's House Christmas. We no longer do early morning wake up, present open because my oldest brother has kids that are old enough to care and they have to do Christmas at their house first. So we sleep in, wake up, put A Christmas Story on TBS on the TV where it will stay on all day, and make Christmas Day Lunch including ham, sweet potatoes, cheesy taters, green bean casserole, homemade bread, and red velvet cake and pecan pie for dessert. This is followed by presents which is followed by a wrapping paper war. We then hang out for about an hour while my brother puts his kids' presents together and we all play with them. We watch part of A Christmas Story and then shift into the traditional Family Game Night portion of the evening. This tends to include too much booze and someone crying, but we still love it and do it every year anyway. I can count on laughing real hard and eating a lot of chipped beef dip (sounds disgusting but is, in fact, delicious).

Dec. 31: Christmas Season Holiday #5: New Year's Eve. I normally spend this at home with my brother and sister, playing games, drinking wine, and being awesome. But I will be back in Willy for it this year. Not sure what will happen but I'm positive it will be fun and low-key which is always what I need after holiday nuttiness.

OK, did you read all of that? And can you still begrudge me for the 3-month celebration? It is totally deserved.

Happy Christmas Season, everyone!

Song of the Day: All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah

I'm Tired

You know what proves to me that I'm definitely not ready to have kids? I haven't been sleeping well for about a week now and I am so pissed off about it I can barely function.

Seriously, I'm tired, I'm cranky, I've been tearing up over nothing.

It's pathetic. And that's after one week. I don't even want to know what kind of constant rage I would be in if some tiny little person was waking me up before I was ready all the time.

It wouldn't be pretty. And neither would I. (For real, the dark circles under my eyes make me look like a rejected extra from Twilight.)

I think I just have some residual stress built up in me. Nothing a vacation can't fix. And since I have a 4-day weekend coming my way, I'm feeling pretty good.

Speaking of my 4-day weekend, my dad and step-mom are coming to visit tomorrow. They'll hang out in Williams and see Route 66 (it's really a sight to behold), and then we're all going to drive down to Phoenix where it is 100 degrees and there's a pool. And Mizzou is playing at ASU. It's going to be awesome. Missouri meets Arizona- a collision of two of my favorite things.

So, that's going to be great. And I'm going to be relaxed and sleep well and get rid of the ridiculous farmer's tan that I still have left from this summer.

I'm relaxed just writing about it...

Song of the Day: Soldier by Ingrid Michaelson

I Lied. It was an Accident, Though.

OK, so a few days ago, I listed all the things my blog wouldn't be about. One of them was sports.

That was a little bit of a lie because I am bound to write about sports now and again. Because, you know, I love my Cardinals and my Tigers.

But my blog won't be about sports.

It'll still be about me. You can count on that as a constant.

But sometimes I spend my days watching football and I need to tell you about it. Like Saturday, when I watched football in my basement for 14 hours.

It was awesome. Some would even say it was the perfect day. (Some= Abigail.)

Here's how the day went:

8:00 Wake up, brush teeth, turn on College Game Day, finish making pumpkin cinnamon rolls I started the night before.

9:00 Cinnamon rolls baked and iced, channel changed to start of Mizzou game

9:15 Susie and Debbie wake up, grab cinnamon rolls and coffee, join me in our loft.

9:45 Abigail and Jill pull up outside. Abigail jumps out of the car and starts running into the house before Jill puts the car in park. Abigail might be as stoked as me.

10:30 Halftime. We move to the basement. Much better for football watching.

12:00 Mizzou game is over, we flip between UCLA/Houston and USC/Minnesota . Abigail is content. (She's a Pac-12 girl.)

1:00 Afternoon snacks come out. Guacamole and spinach dip. Perfect.

2:45 Debbie leaves for work. We all pity her.

3:45 Jill leaves to do homework. We all pity her more.

4:00 Important afternoon games are over. We nap with BYU/Ole Miss on in the background.

4:52 Susie and I wake up and watch last 3 plays of game.

4:56 Abigail wakes up. The first words out of her mouth are: "This is the best day ever."

5:00 Oregon/LSU starts. I try to explain why I don't like the Ducks even though I want to. I can't. We flip at commercials to BSU/UGA and I insist on catching a couple plays of Oklahoma.

5:30 The announcers are talking about Oklahoma, Texas, OK State, and Texas Tech going to the Pac-12. I get mad and yell some things I can't repeat here.

6:00 We order pizza and wings because, well, you know... Football Saturdays.

6:30 Jill comes back because, you know, pizza and wings.

8:00 Oregon loses. Susie is bummed but the rest of us don't care that much. We switch to the UofA/NAU game because it's funny.

10:00 Games are over, we switch to Sports Center to watch the coverage of all the games we just watched.

11:00 Everyone is asleep on couches besides me so we decide to call it a night. I start carrying all the trash and stuff upstairs to find that my roommate Katie did all the dishes we had left up there. I declare Katie a saint, wash my face, brush my teeth, and go straight to sleep.

There it is: 14 hours of football.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think I shouldn't enjoy 14 hours of football that much.

But I do.

You see, I have this life here. And it's great. But it's not the life I grew up with.

It's different.

I'm not that different. But my life is.

So I watch 14 hours of football. Because of some kind of nostalgic weirdness, it makes me feel like me. It makes me think of my family, where they are and what they're doing. It makes me think of the streets I used to walk down and the shops I used to visit and the people that I used to see every day.

It makes me think of so much laughter. And so much fun. Of being really young and learning how to be on my own. Of home.

You see, I have this life. This life that I never even thought to dream of. That in some ways is so much more than what I could have dreamed up. And, in some ways, is so far from where I wanted to be.

I have this life that is always changing, always full of surprises.

But I'm still me. You can count on that as a constant.

And I still love 14 hours of college football and lazy Saturdays.

Song of the Day: We Don't Eat by James Vincent McMorrow (I seriously can't stop listening to this song. Look up the lyrics, they're amazing.)

Pollen is NOT My Friend... And I'm Friendly

I'm not going to lie to you, internet world. I used to think that people who complained about their allergies were just big, whiny babies.

I mean, there I was, skipping about Mid-Missouri, frolicking amongst so much pollen. Grass, flowers, pet dander. No problem for me! So I didn't really get what other people were complaining about. So you're sneezing a little? Small price to pay for the gloriousness of flowers.

Then I moved to Northern Arizona. Where there is no grass. And really not very many flowers. And not a whole lot of vegetation period.

Except for trees. Not deciduous trees like in beautiful old Missouri, but coniferous trees. Pines and Aspens and Junipers. They're gorgeous. And mountainy.

But apparently my body would like to reject them.

And now I'm the sneezy, whiny girl who can't breathe at all.

It is not fun.

And I'm not experienced with having allergies, so I'm not really sure what to do. I've taken every allergy medicine there is. I've been doing a sinus rinse. I've been sleeping with a humidifier on.

I know you're probably saying in your head, "Kate! Go to the doctor! They're trained to deal with this!" But as I've stated before, I have a deep rooted paranoia that the doctor will be ashamed that I would dare come to see them without being deathly ill. I feel like if I'm not requiring amputation, I should just tough it out.

Also, I'm stubborn.

So, here's hoping that the pollen count goes down so I can play outside.

Song of the Day: New Soul by Yael Naim

I Miss the Internet

So, turns out I was really tired because I was about to fall deathly ill.

Seriously.

At one point, I contemplated who would get my Blazer and my books.

Or maybe I'm really dramatic and it was just a flu bug. Whatever.

More importantly, I still don't have internet at my new house. And the ONE internet provider we have here in Williams said that we live too far out to get it. Now, we live 1/2 mile from camp and we have internet there, so I'm going to be making some more calls.

I need it.

And I'm pretty sure satellite internet isn't going to cut it. I read a lot of reviews.

In better news, we do have satellite TV, so I for sure got to watch my Tigers beat Oklahoma last Saturday. I made my Northern Arizona friends who couldn't care less come and watch it. And I made Roxy wear this:


She was really happy about it. As was I, because that was one of the most epic games I've ever seen.

Can't wait for Nebraska this weekend.

So, to sum up, I almost died, living in the middle of nowhere equals crappy internet, and Mizzou football makes me really happy.

What else is there to say?

Song of the Day: Wildflowers by Tom Petty (Sometimes when you look for songs on youtube, all you find are weird videos like this. But I still love this song. And also I enjoy the family pictures of strangers intermixed with stock photos from a PC and Jesuspics.com. That's not weird.)

Sometimes I Look Forward to Saturday on Tuesday Even Though I Love My Job

Hey everybody!

I'm really tired! Like, really, really tired.

But it's completely my fault because I've been doing things like taking weekend trips to Vegas and moving into my sweet new digs.

So I can't really complain because everything I've been doing is fun. But still, I just want to make sure you know, I'm really tired.

However, I am also very happy. And, if you know me, I think you know why.

That's right, it's Fall!!! My absolute most favorite season ever!

I'll list why:

1) The wardrobe. It's a little cold so I get to wear my sweaters and my jackets and all of my scarves. (I love scarves.)

2) The colors. I'm not in Missouri, so I'm sorely missing the beauty that is the trees in the fall, but we do have aspens here in NorAZ. And they are beautiful. They're yellow and the leaves are fluttery and it's sort of magical. So I'm still happy.

3) Pumpkin-flavored food and drink. Pumpkin spice lattes! Pumpkin cookies! Pumpkin cheesecake! Pumpkin baked ziti! These are some of my favorite foods and it is perfectly acceptable to make them all the time.

4) Football. I love college football. Especially when my Tigers start the season 6-0, get a ranking of #11, and have College Game Day broadcast from CoMO.

5) The beginning of Christmas. I don't care if you hate this, I'm easing into Christmas now. I have started occasionally quoting Elf and listening to Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong album. Not all the time yet, but it's happening and I love it.

All of these things are wonderful. Add them all together and you have me looking forward to waking up on Saturday, baking some pumpkin cinnamon rolls, watching Game Day, taking a long drive in a sweater and scarf to pick up a pumpkin spice latte which I will drink on my deck while listening to Christmas music and enjoying the trees, and ending the day by watching my Tigers beat Oklahoma and hopefully playing some games with my friends.

It is going to be the best day ever. Believe it.

Song of the Day: Romeo and Juliet by Matt Nathanson (Dire Straits cover)

This Post Includes a Worksheet on Sexual Purity. For Real.

Hi, Internet World!

I've missed you so much.

My life is crazy. Other times I've said that and it has only kind of been true. Right now, I mean it.

Firstly, I went home last weekend. It was awesome.

I got to go here:

And hang with my extremely cute neice and nephew.

It was wonderful. I didn't tell anyone I was coming home because it was a super quick trip and I haven't seen my family since Christmas. So I did nothing but hang out with them. And eat. And go to movies. And shop with my mom (for her, I'm broke).

Also, I found a box of old notes and stuff from high school in my old closet at my mom's house.

Oh, my goodness. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. It included several emails (from my AOL account: KTBeth213) written in by me in all caps, Comic Sans font, no punctuation. (My style of choice.)

It also included no less than 10 notes from the school office that said things like "Amy went home sick and won't be able to give you a ride to soccer." These were all lies and sent only because there was a cute Senior who would deliver notes to my 5th hour English class.

There were also many, many notes that served absolutely no purpose other than making me look cool as I passed them.

But the best find was this worksheet from one of my Religion classes.

Yes, it is a worksheet about sexual purity. Three of the fill-in-the-blank answers are "God," "Satan," and "Sexual Purity." And under the question "Have you given God control of your total being?," I wrote, "Nopers."

Seriously. Here's the proof.

Yeah, I was such a smart-ass. If that wasn't good enough, on the back of the sexual purity worksheet, I doodled about some boys named Tyler and Jason.

I knew about 20 Tylers and Jasons in high school and I genuinely have no idea which ones I was in love with in 2000. But I can tell you I probably wasn't daydreaming about sexual purity as I doodled their names with mine.

And lastly, I found this incredibly awesome picture of my brother and I at Yellowstone circa 1995. (Check the perm. And the walking stick.)

So, yeah. Obviously home was awesome.

However, add the absence from real life to the fact that I'm moving (into the sweetest house ever- that story will follow in a later post) and I'm trying to lead Young Life while being good at my job, and my life is legitimately crazy.

But, funny enough, it doesn't feel overwhelming. It feels good. And I'm excited.

So, bring it, life! I can take you!

Song of the Day: I Will Be Light by Matisyahu

I Love Sunshine

I'm a Missouri girl. Through and through. Approximately 90% of my clothing actually says Missouri on it (Go Tigers!). I have a never-ending allegiance to the (baseball) Cardinals. When someone mentions Sheryl Crowe (or Brad Pitt or Walter Kronkite), I loudly shout, "They're from Missouri!" I know that Boulevard is the most delicious wheat beer around. I boo everytime I hear the word "Kansas." I talk to people in grocery store lines. I never feel more peaceful then when I'm sitting on a bluff, staring out at a lake/river, walking through the woods (not the forest) in the fall, playing in a corn maze, or eating barbecue on someone's deck.

I love Missouri.

But I think I may be having a completely salacious affair with Arizona.

Missouri is my first love. The sweet, loving, slightly crazy first love that, somewhere in the back of my mind, I've always been equally parts resigned to and afraid of the fact that I'll end up with when it's all said and done. I'm comfortable with Missouri. I even love Missouri.

But Arizona. Oh, Arizona.

It has captured my heart. I was driving back up from Phoenix the other day and it was so big and warm and sunny and vast and ruggedly gorgeous that I couldn't stop smiling.

Arizona makes me happy. Arizona makes me feel alive in ways that I haven't in a long time. It makes me feel young and adventurous. It takes me really fun places and challenges me to do things I've never done. And for the most part, I'm so busy and focused on Arizona that I don't even think of Missouri. It's like I've moved on.

And then I drive past a lake or I hear a song or I get an email from an old friend. And I remember everything I ever loved. Only the good parts.

Yep, I'm a Missouri girl. But I'm going to keep seeing Arizona, just in case it might be right.

Song of the Day: I Taught Myself to Grow by Ryan Adams (I really like the harmonica.)

Peace Out, Missouri

I don't know what I used to do when I was waiting in airports before I had a blog.

I'm leaving Missouri. And that makes me sad. I think that I should have a rule that says I don't get to come home until I've been somewhere for at least 6 months. If I come home when I'm still in the middle of the awkward stage of being new somewhere, it makes me hate it when I have to leave. I'm too comfortable in Missouri and I get to be loud and inappropriate and probably a little obnoxious and people have to still love me. Not so elsewhere.

I feel like I've written this post many times. I love to roam, I love adventure, but part of me wants to be able to hang out in my family's suite at every Mizzou basketball game this season. Part of me wants to be able to drop into my mom's house to watch satellite TV whenever I want. A lot of me wants to be there to play dolls with my niece and Star Wars with my nephew.

I want to be comfortable but I want the good that comes with taking risk. Oh, well.

Back to Arizona, back to my life.

So Close to Home

I was duped by the fabled perils of holiday travel. I got to the airport 2 hours early, something I never, repeat, never do. (Well, I never do now that I don't fly with my mom anymore.) It's unnecessary.

But people kept talking about how crazy it was going to be, so I came 2 hours early. And, people were right, it was busier than usual. But turns out the airport was prepared for that. I even checked a bag and still made it to my gate with an hour and a half to spare.

Thank goodness I have a blog that I've been neglecting and free airport wi-fi. I think I'll make a list.

Top 10 Things I'm Excited About This Christmas:

1) Nativity Challenge 2009- My brother and I have a decades old traditional nativity challenge. It consists of closing our eyes and taking turns picking nativity pieces out of the box. The person who ends up with Baby Jesus is clearly the winner.

2) Satellite TV- This is always my favorite about going home. I watch movies, ESPN, and Discovery Channel marathons (Mike Rowe- I love you).

3) Fighting with my brother- It's inevitable.

4) Christmas Eve Dinner- Another tradition including steak, shrimp from a box, pink salad, and broccoli casserole. Delicious.

5) Presents!- Come on, you're all excited for presents too. Don't pretend like you're above it.

6) Christmas Family Game Night- Always Christmas Day Eve. Very competitive, very fun.

7) Playing Charades/Scattegories/Mafia/Taboo followed by a trip to Steak n' Shake- Everyone get pumped. You know who you are.

8) Watching my grown-up family struggle to put together whatever presents my niece and nephew get- Why so many pieces?

9) Midwestern Stranger Friends- I keep telling people, it's not weird to talk to strangers. Midwesterners know this and I am excited to be back amongst them.

10) Home. Pure and simple.

I love my life and I love my adventures, but the feeling I got when I drove out of Williams reminded me that Missouri is home and there's no place like it. If only it were baseball season...

I Live in Arizona

I'm in Williams. I live here now. This is weird.

Got in around 5 and moved all my stuff into the spare room at Katie and Jen's. Left an hour later to go to Family Dinner which is the weekly potluck for all the staff. Although I'm kind of exhausted and didn't really have the ability to communicate in a functional way, it was fun. It made me remember exactly why I love property staff and why I'm excited about this job.

Also, Williams is as awesome as I remember. I learned tonight that at Christmas, they drill a hole in the middle of one of the streets downtown, put up a giant pine tree, have a parade and tree lighting ceremony, and, oh yeah, that block of the street is just shut down for the entire Christmas season. Because the Christmas tree is more important than a steady flow of traffic. I like their priorities.

I really hope that is just the tip of the iceberg in the funny small tourist town anecdotes.

The best part is, I'm sitting in my room with the window open and it's quiet and peaceful and feels good. I've been really bummed about moving, but I just kept thinking that as soon as I got here, I would love it, just like when I came to interview. It feels right, and that feels good.

Can't wait to work tomorrow!

Enjoy the last road trip diary!

Countdown's On

So... I'm moving. On Monday. To Arizona.

Hmm.

Not sure what to think right now.

I've had a great couple of weeks of fitting in time with people I love in order to prepare for the move.

On Tuesday, we had an awesome Old Helias YL Team Members Who Now Live in KC Reunion. There are a lot of us. The Bonhannons, the Peaks, the Petersons, Elizabeth, John (honorary Helias Alum), Ashley, and I all ate chili, watched youtube videos, laughed really hard, and simply hung out at our house. It was wonderful and fun to see how much we stay connected at the heart even when we're not connected in the day to day.

They've decided to make it a bi-weekly tradition and I'm extremely jealous that I won't be around for it, but glad to know that they're all here, carrying on with a community that I get to be a part of long-distance and can always come back and step right into here. What a blessing.

I've also been back and forth to Jeff City a lot this month in order to hang out with my family. I didn't really take advantage of being so close to home while I was here because I was working weekends and thought I was going to be here longer. So I've been cramming it all in now.

I've been to a Mizzou game, Cardinals game, the Lake, my nephew's flag football game, and a couple of BBQs. It has been seriously wonderful and made me realize how much comfort I receive simply from seeing a familiar landscape in front of me. Driving down hwy 63 and seeing the bluffs and the trees and the capital. I feel like I've been gone so long, but I spent 22 of my 24 years of life in Mid-MO and it still very much is embedded in my heart because of it.

Lastly, I got to spend the day with my niece and nephew last Sunday, followed by dinner with my brother and sister-in-law and the kids. I played probably 30 songs on Rock Band with my 7-year-old nephew and you've have not seen hilarity until you've seen a 7-year-old belt out Eye of the Tiger. It was wonderful.

The rest of our day was taken up by a light saber war, complete with several different jedi/storm trooper/harry potter outfits. There was also some time spent caring for sick Barbie dolls. Always fun.

Here's some pics. Feel free to squeal out loud about how cute they are.

Step 1: Put on Game Face.

Step 2: Attack Sister
Step 3: Add Cape, Attack Sister Again
Step 4: Cuddle Break.
Step 5: Become Storm Trooper

Step 6: Go to Dark Side, Become Darth Vader

Step 7: Make Up Story to Go with Pictures in Book, Ignore Brother at All Costs

Oops.

I put up the wrong video in the last post. Jenna Fischer talks about the lake a lot apparently, but her hilarious description of the Lake is at 4:25.

Headed to the Lake

So I'm home in Jeff City for the weekend. And Labor Day weekend in Jeff City means one thing for most people: trip to the Lake.

For all of my readers who are not native Missourians and therefore do not know the joys of the Lake of the Ozarks, well, I pity you. It is one of the craziest places you will ever go. Drunken rednecks on boats. Party cove. An old-fashioned main strip that houses 10 cent ski ball, more than one old time photo booth, tattoo parlors, taffy stores, screen-print t-shirt stands, mini-golf, and bumper boats.

It provided child-like joy when I was younger and debauchery-filled weekends in my teens. It is a classic Missouri establishment and I'm pretty stoked to be headed there.

I'll be dropping some dimes at 10 cent ski ball, you better believe it.

For further explanation, here's Jenna Fischer from the Office talking about the Lake with David Letterman. Hilarious.

Family is Weird

I think sibling relationships are the funniest relationships out there.

I'm at home for the weekend and my brother is here too. We are 24 and 25. We have a lot of shared history and respect for one another. I think he's great. I admire him in a lot of ways and value his place in my life.

But last night, the first time I've seen him in a couple of months, I yelled at him at least 6 times, got so annoyed by him that I cursed loudly, and punched him in the arm in retaliation for hitting me in a fight over who got to have the comfy pillows.

Yeah. Real mature, I know.

I consider myself a pretty slow-to-anger type of person. I definitely have a temper and there are some things that'll push my buttons, but for the most part, I don't anger or frustrate too easily.

You would not know this when I'm around my family.

I get irrationally angry when they talk while I'm trying to watch a movie. Or cheat when I get up from the table during a game. Or simply say something that I don't approve of.

In all fairness, my brother knows how to frustrate me and does it with great joy. And then laughs a lot. So it makes sense. But still. I should be able to control myself a little better.

But no matter how much I grow as a person, I'm likely to revert to a 15-year-old version of myself whenever I'm at home. I don't know if that's comforting or really scary. If you knew me at 15, you'd probably say scary.

Oh, well. I'm going to go watch some daytime MTV and enjoy being at home.

KC is Pretty Cool

I'm hanging out at the Roasterie with Liz.  They legitimately have the best cup of coffee in KC, but it's 20 minutes from my house.  Why does all the bad stuff happen to me?

But I made the trek and it's rainy and that means I splurged on a soy carmel latte which is ridiculously delicious.  Well done, Roasterie.

On another note, in the past week or so I've come to really love KC.  I've always enjoyed it because of the people, but I've come to really appreciate the city itself.  It's pretty cool.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my friend Drew who lives in Portland.  I was telling her that I thought she should come visit me here in KC and she started laughing.  I was a little confused by that reaction until she said, "Is there anything to do in Kansas City?"

It was then that I realized she thought that I was living in something akin to a farm town.  I had to explain to her that Kansas City is literally almost the exact same size as Portland.  

My favorite thing about KC is that there is a ton of stuff to do, but none of it will break the bank.  You can go to a major league baseball game for $7, you can get dinner for $10, you can get an awesome apartment in the middle of the city for $500/month.  

Oh, and the people are nice and there's good jazz.  

KC is awesome.

This is fun for me and also makes it a great place to visit.  (Hint, hint.)

It's the Freakin' Weekend

I had quite the Kansas City weekend.

It started with First Fridays on Friday night with Ashley, Ben, Liz, Ryan and Elizabeth.  First Fridays takes place the first Friday (shocker) of every month in downtown KC.  All the art galleries open up at night.  It's crowded and fun and I spend a lot of time pretending I know anything about art.  If you just say the words composition and medium a lot, you can make it through any art event.

After leaving First Fridays, we went back to Ryan's and played Settlers which I (of course) enjoyed.  It was just a fun, relaxed night with old friends.  I can't really explain how nice it is to have people here that I know already.  I would be going crazy otherwise.  Literally.

Saturday we experienced the other side of KC.  That would be the middle of America, cattle town side of KC, which I love just as much as the urban side.

Ashley and I had been excitedly talking about PBR coming to town for the past week.  (And by PBR, I do not mean Pabst Blue Ribbon, I mean Professional Bull Riders.)  

PBR was the ultimate in Middle Americana.  The event started with the cowboys being introduced and running out in the middle of a giant "USA" spelled out in flames.  That was followed by a prayer (in the name of Jesus) that included thanking God that we were all born in the USA because America is the greatest country on Earth.  

Another moment that most people I know would find indignantly offensive, but this crowd loved came when a rider named Ryan Dirteater climbed into the shoot.  The announcers introduced him as the "Native American from Oklahoma" and then proceeded to play Indian Outlaw followed by Cherokee People and encouraged the crowd to do the Tomahawk Chop to get Ryan revved up.  Yeah.

Really though, it was a lot of fun.  They put on quite a show and it is an intense sport.  (We saw a guy get stomped in the head by a bull.)  And, even though I hope it does not show up in my day-to-day life, part of me deep down is country.  It's in the blood.  

We followed PBR with a trip to Denim and Diamonds, a country bar in North KC.  It was quite the place to people watch to say the least.  Line dancing, 2-step and the Cupid Shuffle.  You can't beat it.

All in all, it was a fun weekend and was a good way to get me out of the funk of being unemployed and essentially homebound.  

Good friends, good times. 

Valentine's Day=Funniness

OK, I'm willing to admit when I have been completely wrong about something...

It is wonderful being back in Missouri.  I don't think that I realized that I was slightly uncomfortable everywhere else until I got back here for an extended period of time.  People are nice (when they want to be) and funny and they don't tell me I have an accent even thought I totally do.  (Seriously, it took me like 3 days to sound completely country.)

I've been in Jeff all week working at my parents' florist shop and it was hilariously fun.  The people that you hire to work at your florist in the middle of Missouri are always a fun group, as are the clientele you have in.

My favorite part of working at a florist is reading the cards that people put with their arrangements.  My favorite from this year was this message on a dozen roses:

Happy Valentine's Day

From Your Husband

P.S.  I want to tie you up...

If I could include a visual of the guy who penned that message, it would be even funnier.  But I think that would a complete invasion of privacy.  (And I don't take pictures of strangers.)

Also, let me give you all some advice: when you order flowers from someone, you don't have to give them the entire back story that goes with your reason for sending the flowers, but it will probably make them happy if you do.  

I spent about 10 minutes on the phone with one guy while he told me about how he accidentally cheated on the girl he was sending flowers to.  I spent another 5 minutes trying to help a guy craft a card that would get the man he was sending flowers to know he liked him without outing the guy to his parents whom he still lives with.  We ended up going with simply his initials and a phone number.  

It's a fun business.  

I worked at the shop all through high school and college part time.  I actually first started there in 2002.  So, even though I hadn't worked there for more than a day at a time in over 2 years, I knew exactly what I was doing.  In fact, there was a new girl in and I ended up spending quite a bit of time training her.  That was kind of funny and made me realize that if you do anything enough, it will never leave you.

There are several people there who have worked there for 5+ years so they have literally seen me grow up.  Our general manager was teasing me about how I used to just come in and sit down in the back and whine about how tired I was, all the while doing basically nothing.  I really was a horrible employee.  I would like to think that my work ethic has improved significantly since then.  (It has.)  Now I'm like the super-star employee there which I guess provides me with some job security if nothing else.

I'm headed to KC tonight and I have a couple of people to meet with over the next week.  So the job hunt really begins!  Should we start a countdown to see how long it takes me to become so frustrated at not being able to find a job that I move off the grid and take up a life style of complete self-sustainability rendering an income useless?  Or should I just continue to believe that the perfect job will fall into my lap within a week or two?  I don't know which one would provide better blog fodder.

We'll see...

Home Sweet Home

I'm back in Missouri.

In the past 3 days I:

Watched the Grammys with Ashley and John while eating stroganoff and cheesy biscuits.

Moved my stuff into my new house meaning I get to use more of what I own than what can fit in one suitcase.

Spent 3 hours in a coffee shop with Elizabeth and Liz talking about life.

Went to church.

Ate at Panera.

Was present in Mizzou arena to watch my Tigers beat Kansas with a last minute shot by Zaire Taylor.

Yep.  Missouri's still got it.

Song of the Day: Dear Oprah by Susan Cagle

I Forgot How Lazy I am

There is something about being home that makes me want to do nothing but be incredibly lazy.  I mean, it is seriously impressive how little I can do.  After the few days of holiday festivities, I have done absolutely nothing but eat impressive amounts of food, watch ridiculous quantities of TV and sleep (and sleep and sleep).  Oh, I've also read a couple of books, but really not as many as you would expect.  Because even reading is a little too taxing for me these days.

My brother and sister are enablers.  They have been in on it every step of the way with me.  Yesterday was the worst day.  Not only was there a Project Runway marathon on (which I watched literally all of, from 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM), but there was also a Jon & Kate Plus 8 marathon AND a Deadliest Catch marathon.  All of this on top of the Mizzou game.  I contemplated using the picture in picture, even though I think that's the dumbest TV feature ever.  

I ended up mainly watching Project Runway because it was the season I had missed while at Wildhorse.  But I had to flip during the football game.  And when both of those were over, I switched to Jon & Kate Plus 8, which was on until 2:00 AM.  Aaaahhh.  That is not good.  

I have left the house to go to a couple of Mizzou basketball games.  My dad has a suite for his business which is fun but makes me feel old and miss college.  But at least I had to wander out of doors to get there.  

Life in MO....  Love it and hate it, all at the same time.