Disjointed

I got my car fixed and it was ridiculous. I got sick the day after I got home from Birmingham and it has taken me until now to feel good again. Which is also ridiculous. I went to Louisville last weekend and saw my grandparents and Mark. That was pretty fun, except we're all worried about them. Tonight after work I'm going to Owensboro because we're having a shower on Saturday for my cousin who is getting married soon. My cousin from FL who rarely comes will be there and the cousins from KY who rarely come are making an appearance. So that should be nice. They're fun. Fortunately I think we're coming back on Sunday, so at least I have one day of the weekend to do something useful. I feel like I've been really busy lately, but I don't think I have. I was just really tired for about a week because I was sick. I think tomorrow is going to be kind of crazy, since my grandma's house will be full of people and we're in charge of food. At least we'll be having good food.

Also, last night I was at a friend's apartment and I glanced at her calendar and exclaimed in dismay, "Did you mark the date of High School Musical on your calendar?!" The answer was yes, but it's worse than you think. Apparently, the people at the Capitol here did it. How awful is that? I was horrified. Because as I told Dave and Rachel while Zoe was making us watch part of High School Musical 2, the worst part about it is that it's available to do as a musical for your school or whatever. Think about that-watching High School Musical, but worse. Remind me not to encourage any children I may have in the arts. Also, I ranted at Mark last week because Zac Efron was on the cover of Rolling Stone. I really can't figure out why. I mean, he's been in like five movies, three of which were made for television. I realize that two of those movies are part of like an insane children's pop culture thing, but dude. He's like the only person in that cast who does not have a record deal. Anyway, apparently crappy movies offend me now. But I love crappy movies! I guess even I have standards. Yay me.

Breakdown

So, I am home. Most of you already know about my travel troubles, but suffice to say, I blew a tire and many thanks go to those of you who talked to me on the phone and then kept checking on me. Thanks guys, you're all awesome and I'm sorry I cried at most of you. It was almost ten by the time I got home, but it could have been worse. And, no Rachel, I have the best sister! You are too cool and extremely hardcore. I hope you keep staying ahead of schedule. Be careful and don't try to drive anytime soon, no matter how good you feel.

I love you dudes

This is me and Dave inspecting Mark when he was new. I am also apparently inspecting the contents of my nose. What can I say? I was only two.

After further inspection, we decided that he was okay and he could stay. We love you Mark, even if we don't get to see you enough. And even though you and Dave wouldn't dance with me and Rachel the night of this picture. We had fun dancing with Zoe.

I think this picture is adorable and so it took me a bit to figure out why it also made me sad. I guess because my parents are not close to their siblings, even though at one time, they obviously were. My mom's little sister was her maid of honor and my dad's younger brother was his best man. The rest of the wedding party was not family, so I don't think it was influenced by that. It just makes me sad that by the time Rachel died and Dick got really sick, we didn't see them much and I know my parents didn't talk to them a lot in between holidays. And they don't talk much to their remaining siblings now. I don't ever want to be that way with my dudes. I love that we're close and talk quite frequently. I love that they're easy to shop for because I know them. I love that Rachel and I laughed at Dave for like 10 minutes yesterday for talking about Hugh Downs when he meant Hugh Grant. And that I told them yesterday that I hit their car once when I was 16 and didn't tell anyone and they were like, dude, we never noticed (I was really scared and I had only tapped it. I would have told on myself if anyone had even asked what happened).

Anyway, I have had a pretty fun week down here and I am sad about leaving, but I have to work and see all the other people I love and stuff at home. Shannon said my cats stopped throwing up, which is awesome! Work only called me once, so I hope everything is good there. We went to the mall today, which was a trip. It kind of makes me appreciate how small BG is, even though Scottsville Road always sucks. Also, Addie saw a picture of me from kindergarten and said, "Your were little?" Yes, indeed I was once little. Right now I kind of wish I still were so I wouldn't have to work and stuff. She is still skipping all the consonants in my name most of the time, which is funny. Sometimes she says Ura instead. Andrea is a hard name for little kids.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

So Rachel and I decided we must be too old to watch MTV because we were baffled by even the commercials. Seriously, if you understand the ones with the people talking to the stuffed bear, please explain it to me. And explain to me if those people are the same people who are in a weird band in other commericals where at least one dude just sits around and watches while the others play instruments and sing. On a semi-related note, we finished the really long Pride and Prejudice today. It was still good. Addie made everyone watch Ernest Scared Stupid again yesterday, except she calls it the "punkin patch" movie (there's a picture of Ernest in a giant pumpkin on the front). Today we watched part of Ghostbusters. Addie said ghosts are also not allowed in the house. Dave had somehow forgotten about the awesome red phone we had when we were kids that said "Who Ya Gonna Call?" on it. It was totally a real phone and he got excited once he remembered. But the funniest thing so far is when Zoe came home from school Wednesday and announced that the air conditioner in her classroom caught fire. She kept telling the story to different people and gesturing wildly and reenacting what they had to do to get their backpacks out. She's very dramatic. :)

I most certainly can do dishes!

Anyone who cares already knows that I'm spending the week in Birmingham with the peeps. It's been pretty quiet. Rachel and I spent yesterday watching Jason movies on the Monsters HD channel. Just so you know, putting crappy special effects in HD does not really help. It was awesome. I haven't watched an old school Jason movie in years. Sadly, laughing really hurts for Rachel right now, so we are mostly not watching things that are funny. Although we adults all burst out laughing more than once during Ernest Scared Stupid today. Rachel is pretty hardcore about her pain. She has the some of the most vivid bruises I've seen in years. We've spent some time reading the seventh Harry Potter book, which is good. Rachel's dad lent me a copy. I finished it tonight and it was good.

Addie had some words of wisdom for me earlier. We were watching Ernest Scared Stupid and she told me, "No bad guys in the house. Bad guys have to stay outside." Keep that in mind always. Also, the troll in that movie needs a tissue. Addie also keeps telling me that I'm a girl, which is good knowledge to have.

Random old stuff

Shannon and I were gearing up for Halloween our freshman year of college. We were fairies with these lovely pink wigs, short blue dresses, pink tights (which we could only find in the children's department) and our awesome fuzzy pink wings and silver wands. I may someday show those pictures. Here we were just excited about the wig part.

Do you remember this little boy? We were all surprised when we found this picture recently. My parents and I guesstimated that Mark was not quite 15 here.

What I love about this is that we are all wearing cardigans over tank tops. It was very cold at our school. Also, I'm pretty sure that Amanda and I are wearing the exact same cardigan. I think it was from American Eagle and I had it in white and navy. I forgot about that headband phase when I was growing out my bangs. Better than the barrette phase...

Do you know these people? They look like they're having fun.

This is the source of my excitement...

Ok, since the two people who read this asked-I am excited because I get to go here on September 7th. I'm going to spend the weekend being quiet. That will be new and different for me. These nuns don't take a vow of silence, but they are cloistered, so they do not interact with you unless you're a nun. They have a water channel down the middle of their chapel so that the nuns will always be separated from the world. The nuns sit on one side of the water and all visitors sit on the other. I just thought that was cool. And no, I am not going to become a nun.
Anyway, I wanted to go here, but they didn't have any openings until the end of December. That's crazy far away. So I kept looking and found this one. I didn't even know there was a monastery just outside of Owensboro. And then I had to figure out what Passionist Nuns were. They are not Benedictine and they are not an offshoot of Benedictine like the Trappists. Apparently they devote their lives to constant prayer. They don't make things to support themselves like the Trappists. So I haven't even gone yet and it's already a learning experience! Of course, the goal for the weekend is not to learn new words.

Oh, right

This weekend Shannon and I finally got around to watching one of our movies from Netflix that have been sitting around at my house for forever. We watched The Aviator, which was okay. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't whatever I thought and it was a little slow. Also a little slow are Annie Hall and Shopgirl. I wanted to like Annie Hall because it's supposed to be so good, but I really had trouble getting past the fact that I find Woody Allen so irritating. It's really hard to figure out why Diane Keaton's character would have ever been with him. And I do mean him, because the only character he ever plays is himself. Shopgirl seemed kind of promising, but I had trouble getting past the fact that she was trying to get it on with Steve Martin. It's just that he's Steve Martin and he's old. But it wasn't a bad movie. What else did I watch this weekend? Oh, 21 Grams. It was interesting and it only started dragging towards the end. I didn't even hate Sean Penn. Shannon and I tried to guess what weighed 21 grams. We were both wrong. They do actually tell you towards the end. Wow, it totally sounds like all I did this weekend was watch movies. That's so not true, but whatever.

odds and ends

I'm really happy today because something I'm very excited about is in the works. I'll tell you later if you care to hear. I'm also excited about going to Birmingham on Sunday. I know Rachel won't be at her best, but I'm looking forward to hanging out with her regardless. Racho always provides laughs. And I haven't spent a week with the Birmingham Benzes in about a year and a half. I also think our dear father will be excited about his birthday present, even if he is confused as to why we are insisting on giving it to him two months early. If I ever manage to go over to my parents' house, I have some stuff to scan and post because it amuses me. I recently found quite a few things that I hadn't seen in some years. They weren't lost, although there is one picture I have been looking for for about two years. I think I figured out who stole it from me. So I'm pretty sure I'll never see it again, which is a shame because it was an awesome picture. Also, how cool does a cloister water channel sound? Nothing really big happening right now, just the usual junk.