Uhhhg oh my god, so I've started studying up to take the GRE because apparently somewhere in the back of my brain I want to go back to school and it's HARD. I haven't thought about serious analogies or how to find the square root of anything since I was in HIGH SCHOOL, which was, like, EIGHT YEARS AGO. My study habits in school were always kind of schizophrenic and procrastinatorial anyway, and now I have to remember how it all works? HAAARRRRDD.

I came home from work this afternoon and watched possibly the most painful football game of my life. My team was 8 and 0 coming in to play a team that HASN'T WON A GAME ALL YEAR and they BARELY pulled it out by the skin of their teeth with a literally last second field goal. Our quarterback fumbled the ball FOUR TIMES in a WARM INDOOR STADIUM. I know none of you care! But it was a big deal.

And I think my sister should marry the adorable star receiver on the team. I'm putting that out there to the universe in the hopes that on Monday when she walks across campus, it will give him the sudden and inexplicable desire to offer to carry her books to class or something. I'm trying to mojo her a cute boy, basically.

Speaking of books! I finally got my [2009 book list] all spiffy and updated. I read a lot of ya stuff this year! I'm blaming it half on my job and half on the fact that it's FUN. Ask me questions, tell me what you've read! I like talking books.

If my sister's dirty little pervert dog steals one more pair of my underwear I'm going to chuck him off the balcony. I'm just saying.

There's a new boy at work and he is reaaally cute. And also nice and funny and he's got that hot athletic boy build with the broad shoulders and the tiny waist and it's great! It's nice to have eye candy. Yesterday he was wearing these jeans with a bright red Polo label on the butt pocket and I spent a lot of time accidentally (and then on purpose) checking out his ass. Awesome! I think every girl is already plotting out which storage closet would be best to drag him into.

Saw Ben Folds last Wednesday and he was AMAZING. I wish I could play piano like that, only I'd probably forget to ever do anything else like eat or sleep or breath, which would be sad. And the opening act was Kate Miller-Heidke, who was ADORABLE and really good! I hear she's got, like, a number one album in Australia or something, so maybe those of you on the other side of the world already knew who she was. Her stuff's all expensive imports over here, so here's her latest album, Curiouser, if you're interested. Her live gig was really acoustic and fun and the album's more poppy, but still fun!

And then on Friday we saw David Sedaris as part of the Montana Festival of the Book, and he was tiny and charming and hilarious as always. If you've never listened to him read his own stuff, you should. It's FABULOUS.

I'm getting a haircut today! A professional one at a real salon! This is exciting because that has only happened once or twice before in my life. I usually just wait until Hailey's in town and make her trim it for me, but I guess I'm feeling decadent today! Tell me I'm stupid because I'm kind of nervous.

Do you guys ever have, like, sexy schlump days? I totally felt like I was working this stay-on-the-couch, live-in-my-pajamas, don't-brush-my-hair thing yesterday. Or I could just still be riding the high of being in my own space that is hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Winne-fucking-mucca. I needed a recuperation period from my vacation.

( So here's the short version of that story. )

It was kind of ridiculous.

( This picture is my favorite. )

I don't want to go back to work tomorrow. I'm not reaaady, I still have trauma issues I think.

So, I'm home, but I haven't slept at all in coming up on 40 hours and I have traveled 675 miles, worked an eight-hour shift and eaten a cheesy delicious carb-loaded dinner in that time span. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to pass out in less than ten minutes, whether I want to or not.

For those of you who didn't get the twitter updates - suffice it to say that the five days we actually did get to spend in California were great; the other five days were the vacation from hell. I will tell you why after I get my brain back with me!

OKAY SO. My parents finally got back from Europe this morning (they were supposed to get back last night but only got as far as Salt Lake) and I am so ready for a break. Today was the end of eight straight days of work and most of my spare daylight moments the past week and a half have been spent mowing the lawn/working the garden/feeding horses etc. My baby sister also turned 21 this week! It's been kind of crazy.

But my best friend is driving into town tonight and tomorrow morning we're leaving to drive down to California for a week and a half! We're spending the weekend at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco (you guys, MC Hammer is going to be there - I don't think he remembers who he's supposed to be), staying in someone's parents' house while they're out traveling, and then we're going back down to Santa Cruz to visit her aunt and uncle who we stayed with back during the Great Surfing Adventure of 2007. I'm really excited! But I don't have a bathing suit.

Don't worry, I'll twitter from the beach and the delicious Mexican food-binges and make you all jealous.

You guys, my best friend from elementary and middle school just found out she and her husband are PREGNANT. It's blowing my mind, she's the first of my good friends I grew up with to start popping 'em out. I feel like I go through my life these days in bursts of either "I'M TOO OLD FOR THAT" or "I'M NOT OLD ENOUGH FOR THIS SHIT YET" and right now is totally the latter.

I just spent the entire day in front of the sewing machine and now I have a headache. Ripping out seams is my least favorite thing in the world right now.

So apparently our new coworker roommate is actually a megalomaniacal doucheface with little to no respect for anyone else and passive-aggressive tendencies so strong it hurts my brain. I'm a fairly tough person to really piss off, but I am so done with him and his bullshit and he can leave any day now.

So that's fun!

Also going on in my life - I got up at six this morning to put my daddy on a plane to New York and the radio talked about 9/11 the whole way back from the airport. It kind of gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Anyway, my dad's meeting my mom in New York (he's visiting his brother, she's going to her 40th high school reunion!) on Sunday and they're flying to Germany for their 30th wedding anniversary, n'aww. So they're going to be gone for nearly three weeks, which means I am in charge of their big house and their big yard and their big pets and their big garden and making sure nothing dies or blows up or otherwise goes horribly wrong. And my mother took her magic internet stick to New York with her, so I'm going to be pretty much cut off from the world while I'm up there. SIIIGH. Maybe that means I can get some reading or (gasp shock etc.) writing done!

Oh and there was that show last night, it was pretty good. (MY HEAAAAAART how does Jared's face retain the ability to look five-years-old forever.)

[This] is possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The "Smack It!" page almost made me pee myself.

I ran into my little sister's childhood best friend's older brother (HA did you get all that?) today after years of not seeing him around and someone looks gooooooodd. It was reported in the lunch room in seventh grade that he had a crush on me and obviously I should have taken that shit seriously back then instead of hiding behind the gym.

I'm due out for a last beer with one of my best friends who leaves Monday morning to fly to Sweden for the year on a Fulbright Scholarship. He's a genius mastermind who's going to save the world with cyanobacteria or something. He's making me feel kind of insufficient.

And last night I went out with one of my best friends from college who I hadn't seen in two years because he's off in New York becoming a doctor. Pretty soon I'm going to be able to tell people that I have a SURGEON friend. And also that he's a really good dancer.

My shoooow comes back so soooon. \o/

To start - HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY, DOR! I'm sorry I forgot to be congratulatory yesterday, we went fishing and I got eaten alive by mosquitoes and I think maybe they gave me a brain-eating disease that caused me to space out all my good intentions. That's what I'm going with anyway. I hope you had a fantastic day with your family because you totally and completely deserve it. And here's to hoping that the next year brings you a book deal and I can ride the gravy train on your coattails, HAHA. I love you, buddy and I miss you! <333

The rest of my life has been a little wild and crazy lately. We have a new roommate, a friend from work who broke up with his long-term girlfriend and was looking for a place to stay and since our house is kind of huge and we like him, we said he could move on in to the basement. Actually, it was the X-Box 360 and his big dumb dog that sold me. I have spent every night the past week giving myself carpal tunnel playing Guitar Hero and now I am awesome at it.

That brings the total of people I live with at about the age of 21 to three, and I feel like an old fart. They're all ready to start partying at eleven o'clock at night and I'm putting myself to bed because I have to work in the morning and I can't survive on less than six hours of sleep.

My mom's birthday was on Wednesday and she was totally paranoid she was going to kick the bucket. Two weeks ago on a Wednesday one of our horses passed, last Wednesday we had to let Ty go, and she just kept going, "I'M NOT SUPERSTITIOUS BUT BAD THINGS COME IN THREES I'M GOING TO DIE REMEMBER ME WELL." Needless to say, she did not die.

Last week was faaair weeeek, so I spent the entire weekend gorging myself on corn and tacos and gyros and vikings and fry bread and sweet potato fries and cheap bad beer watching cowboys and demolition derbies. It was kind of great, but now I feel like I need to eat salads for the rest of my life to repent for my fried ways. If any of you have tasty healthy(ish) favorite recipes that you want to throw at me, I would LOVE to try and cook more real food that doesn't come out of a box. :D

I was going to be all "here are the things going on in my life!" on here today, but we just had to put Ty to sleep and I'm a snotty-faced mess now.

I talked about it a little a while ago, but he's been going steadily downhill this summer and this afternoon he started having seizures. My parents ran him to the animal emergency clinic in town and they got him stabilized, but they said it was likely he'd be blind from then on and he started seizing again a few hours later. It was the right choice to let him go now, but I'm still just going to be devastated for a little while. He was the dog of my heart and now he's gone.



♥♥♥ I love you buddy.

I woke up to my period this morning and proceeded to be crampy, bloaty, bleedy and weepy until my sisters (they were BOTH HERE TO SPEND THE DAY WITH MEEE) stuffed me in the car and took me out to lunch and an eyebrow waxing. So THAT was an awesome way to start a birthday, but my sisters and roommate are awesome and my eyebrows are now perfect. And then my family took me out to dinner and I got sweet potato fries (please dear god let there be sweet potato fries in heaven) and a free sundae so all things told I count today in the win column.

I do feel older this year. :|

OH MY GOD, have you guys seen the ~*DESIGNER*~ Snuggie ads on tv yet? BEST. Now you can lounge warmly and comfortably in ZEBRA PRINT.

I think I am ruined for life now and I never want to live a summer in another house that doesn't have a pool. Every time you get hot and sweaty, boom! Instant cool-down. It makes mowing the lawn and going for runs and generally being alive in July SO MUCH BETTER. I spent half my day floating around and lounging on the grass in the sun.

New favorite music right now: Florence & the Machine. This whole album is AMAAAAZING, her voice is so powerful and beautiful, and the way the music swells and falls seriously just gets me in the gut.

• Dog Days Are Over


• Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)


• Howl

A couple of my favorites, but if anyone wants the whole album, let me know. It is seriously one of the best things I've heard all year.

I woke up this morning at seven, not to the thunderstorm going on outside, but to my 20-year-old sister climbing into bed with me because she was afraid of it. And by woke up, I mean, rolled over and grunted "Get in on the other side" and went back to sleep for an hour. She's a big wussy! ♥

And apparently we are going to Harry Potter tomorrow night, and if my roommate has any say in it she won't be the only one dressed up. She's a big geek! ♥

We're half-watching some episode of Smallville right now, and this is possibly the dummmmbest thing I've ever seen. I will take ghost-hunting brothers who die for each other any day!

I am at home (my parents' house) for the night on animal patrol while they go booze it up at a cabin in the woods with their friends and it is giving me an emotional BREAKDOWN. :(

My old dog Ty (who is the best dog EVER and I love like BURNING) has had doggy arthritis for a couple years now and I think he's finally just getting old and his body's giving out. Right now he can't even get his hind legs to work; he's just lying out in the backyard and every once in a while he gets up the energy to scoot himself a couple feet to lie down facing a different direction. He is BREAKING MY HEART - I've totally already bawled myself dry sitting out there with him.

And they are BUILDING A HOUSE right behind ours in the middle of what's always been a beautiful view of the woods and the mountain and I HATE THEM for it. You could always stand in my backyard growing up and pretend we were the only people living up the mountain and now they're RUINING IT.

Also, my mom's computer has one of those stationary mouses with the thumb roller and I CANNOT control it.

I HAAAAATE IT.

There's a totally wasted 19-year-old boy passed out on my couch!

We had a really good barbecue up here on Saturday, but now there is leftover food EVERYWHERE and I don't even think we can eat it all before it starts going bad. That is SAD.

Also, the fact that they are making a 10 Things I Hate About You tv show for ABC Family makes my soul cringe. It's a TRAVESTY.

CHRISTIIINE, happy birthday girlfriend! You make me laugh and teach me dirty words and listen when I drunk-dial you at two in the morning to talk about how I'm "not really that drunk" and I always get fed really well when I come to visit! These are all reasons why you are AWESOME and I'm going to keep you around FOREVER. I love yooou, I hope your day was good. ♥♥♥