In which I attempt to branch out, foodwise.

Birthday was good. Had Thai food. Shannon and I went shopping. All I bought was Tylenol Sever Allergy pills. They are awesome. I am feeling better.

And believe it or not, last week I tried sushi (I don't eat fish. Not even cooked fish. The smell is gross to me, and sometimes the textures are too weird. The smell thing, mostly. I think because when I first started getting the migraines, I had one and my mom was making fish and it smelled up the whole house and I was about to be sick, so I had to leave the house. And thus, I do not eat fish.). Real sushi, where it's just a slab of raw fish, not like, the rolls with crunchy stuff and cream cheese or whatever (those are totally ok, by the way). I ate a piece of raw salmon. It was not very good. It tasted like medical supplies smell. That's the closest I can come to describing what it was like to me. But I thought in the interest of giving it a fair shot, I should eat a second piece. So I did. Still medical-y. So, only the rolls for me.

I don't want to be sick on my birthday. That would muck up my plans, such as they are. I'm celebrating tonight with my parents, which is nice. Mmm, cornbread. Time for more sinus drugs!

Fun times at Ye Olde Paneled Palace

Evening, interior, Paneled Palace

Shannon: (walks into kitchen) Did you wash a bowl? Can I use it?!


Lunchtime, interior, Paneled Palace

Andrea: (powdering her shiny face in the bathroom) (listening to Shannon tell a story)

Shannon: (sitting on the toilet lid, eating a breakfast Hot Pocket, telling a story) Oh, dude! (gestures at self, situation)

Andrea: We are so classy! (the two high-five on that)

bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse...

One evening last week, I went to bed. I started thinking about my grandma and started crying and then couldn't stop. I seriously just could not stop. Shannon was at the library and when she came home, I was sitting on the toilet lid, holding a roll of toilet paper. Aside-I do not understand when books talk about people's faces being tear-stained. Even if I don't wipe them away, it's not like you can see the tear tracks down my face. I mean, you can tell if I've been crying recently because my eyes will be puffy or my birthmark will be extra purple. But actual tear tracks? No. Is this just me? Anyway, she was all, but you're just grieving. It was just it was so random and then I couldn't stop it. I'm going to have to look for the picture my grandfather gave me when I was 15. It was of my grandma when she was 14, and it looked so much like me. I was excited that I finally had some resemblance to someone in my family. Now I know that there is resemblance between me and Dave and Mark, but I guess maybe we were still growing and I couldn't see it then.

My grandma taught me how to braid when I was little. Not by sitting me down and showing me, but by giving me a braid and a doll and telling me to figure it out. She did tell me she would show me if I couldn't figure it out, but I managed. She made doll clothes for my Barbies that I loved so much. They were so much better than the skanky Barbie brand clothes. And just think about how much worse Barbie's clothes have gotten. My Barbies had an awesome peasant blouse and a cool flippy tulip skirt and several other good items. When I was 8, my grandparents gave my cousin who is Dave's age the box set of the Anne of Green Gables books. I remember reading the backs and thinking they looked awesome, and my grandma was paying attention. Guess what I got for my birthday 6 months later? Only what became my all-time favorite book series ever! Seriously, you would know how much I loved those books if you saw my copies. And I know a lot of people probably think they are dated, but I think the themes are timeless, but that's a discussion for another time. Right after she gave me those books, she made a doll for me. It was a doll with reddish hair, freckles, blue-ish eyes, and a mouth that turned down a bit and had a pronounced cupid's bow. I didn't even realize until then that my mouth did that. But then I saw what she already knew. It was an awesome doll -not like, a rag doll, but a real doll-it's hard to explain. I wish we hadn't given it away, along with the Barbie clothes. But I still have the memories. My grandma was a wonderful, godly lady. The night she died, my family and my cousins and aunt and grandfather were all sitting around at the house, looking at old pictures, when we found a photo of Mark, sometime under the age of five, wearing what were basically blue lederhosen and a rainbow bow tie. We were all cracking up over this, when my mom got all upset and told us to stop laughing. She was like, Grandma made those for him! We were like, so? If Grandma saw that picture now, she would totally laugh.

And I don't even care to shake these zipper blues

I fear I am losing my mind. For the past week or so, more than a few times I have walked in to the bathroom and realized that my pants were already unzipped but still buttoned. I cannot figure out if I am doing that in the hallway prior to entering the bathroom, or like, an hour before because I keep starting to walk to the bathroom, but then I think of something else I have to do that makes me veer off my original course. I would hope that someone would tell me if I were wandering about with my pants unzipped. I'm choosing to believe that I am doing it moments before entering the bathroom, whilst thinking of something else, and that is why I am not noting that I am doing it. Yes, that must be it.

IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single alien in possession of a good planet, must be in want of a bloodbath.

I don't know what is up with all the Pride and Prejudice mutilation lately, but check this out. This time it is not a book, but a movie, and not zombies, but aliens. On an even more random note, it is being produced by Elton John's production company.

So, it's Valentine's Day. In honor of the martyrs, I present this for your amusement. Despite the fact that it drops on April 1st, it does seem to be a real book, as one can purchase it on Amazon. I know what Rachel's getting for Mother's Day!! Also, if anyone can defeat zombie hordes, it's a woman, specifically Elizabeth. I love you dudes.

Happy Valentine's Day?

Last night Shannon and I got a heart-shaped pizza from Papa John's, purely for the novelty. It was pretty good. It is thin crust, so it's not like regular Papa John's pizza. But it was fun.

Also, here is an excerpt from a conversation we had the other day in the car.

Interior, Shannon's vehicle. Night.
Shannon: Find some music on my sister's ipod. Make sure you put the plug in, but not all the way or the vocals are quiet.
Andrea: Ok. There!...Oops. Oh, got it again! Oh, no. Lost it again.
Shannon: You suck at using my broken crap!

...Everybody!

Is it wrong that I think these shirts are hilarious? I mean, I'm down with G-O-D, yeah you know me! [title! come and join the chorus, the mighty mighty chorus! (sorry for that musical interlude)] I don't think that those shirts are a particularly good way to get people to talk about God. For one, other than the atheist one, they don't even necessarily make you think about religion at all. And mocking is America's favorite pasttime, and those sure open you up for some witticisms. Also, I keep thinking that there should be an 's' at the beginning of some of them. I know, I'm so wrong.

I am not certain I can accurately convey how wrong I think this is. Why would you do that? That poor dog. That must be so uncomfortable. I would think the impact would be incredibly jarring. Also, the way that thing laces, it kind of looks like the dog is wearing a corset. We're not even going to talk about the TMNT dog.

an interlude of ridiculousness

OK, I am, at times, a giant nerd. Although to some people in my family, the following will not seem nerdish, but that's because they are music geeks. I say that in the most loving way possible. Anyway, I was about to quote West Side Story to someone , because somebody was complaining about something here and someone else was like, go somewhere else, I'll buy you a plane ticket. And that made me think of the part in the song America where Anita tells Bernardo she knows a boat he can get on (bye bye!). But I couldn't remember how that song began, so I googled it. That musical was my favorite for a time in my childhood. And the rooftop dance to America was one of my favorite parts. I love that it says 'an interlude of WHISTLING and DANCING,' followed by 'an interlude of MORE DANCING.' I dance around a lot at home. The other day at lunch, Shannon was home for lunch too, and she started to walk away from me, and I did a high kick and discovered I could kick her in the head if I wanted to. So then we both faced each other and took turns doing high kicks just to be sure we both could, if we so chose, kick the other in the face. Yeah, we should probably get out more. To be clear, there is no kicking that goes on at our house. Intentionally, anyway, since we all know animals can get underfoot and make you kick them accidentally. My dancing around rarely includes kicking either, unless I'm doing the Russian man dance. Which never happens. Please remove that image from your head.