nalgene

I just got some good news: my new nalgene bottle and replacement lids will be at my front door tomorrow. A volunteer at church "broke" my old one. He wanted to prove they weren't indestructible. He threw it multiple times but it wouldn't break. He kicked it but it wouldn't break. He had Preston run over it with his truck--it DIDN'T break. The then repeated the throwing and kicking. A tiny crack appeared on the bottom of my bottle. He gloated about breaking my bottle. Thankfully I had already ordered a new one. I have felt out of place without it for about a week. I take with me almost everywhere I go. When my new one comes in, I'll have two. Hopefully the volunteer will make good on his word and give me a replacement one so I can have three.

You may be thinking, "why does one girl need three nalgenes?" Quite simply, they are the best bottles in the world. Since I take them everywhere, it's great to be able to have multiple ones in case one is in the dishwasher. It's also a good feeling to know I can bring them all to frisbee in case someone forgets their water. Plus it's important to stay hydrated.... ;-)

wonderful weekend

I'm sure you've heard the phrase: "I need a vacation to recover from my vacation"? That is certainly not the case for me today. I had a beautiful mini-vacation this weekend. :-)

I spoke with Kenneth about taking the weekend off from church so I could recharge. It was perfect timing-- this last week was one of the worst weeks I've had in about fifteen months. Everyday this week something went awry...seriously bad news each & every day.

Friday night I went to a cook out which was tasty & delightful. I was able to see my kindred entertainment spirit, Courtney, whom I haven't seen in weeks (unfortunately we aren't schedule kindred spirits). We have decided our art day isn't going to come soon enough.

After the cookout, I decided I needed a new coverup for my swimsuit. Things looked a little bleak when all of the cute ones weren't in my size but thankfully the little girl section (you never knew i was size husky little girl did you?) had a fun, semi-frilly one. I was also very impressed by Burt--he now has sunblock. I honestly think one day you'll see Burt's Bees Cure for Cancer. I found a very bright, very yellow purse too!

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early, finished packing, and made the tough calls on what music to bring. Megan picked me up at 7:30 & we were off to the lovely town of New Braunfels. The drive was as close to perfect as a drive can be. We had lunch at a tiny diner in Canyon City before renting a raft.

Megan & I took on the Guadalupe. Sounds menacing huh? It's not but I wanted to sound tough. The river was pretty shallow so at almost any given point of our 3 mile trip you could hear one of us saying, "tree!" or "ROCK! BIG ROCK!!!". I think we may have found each and every large rock in the Guadalupe. We kept wiggling our way off of rocks (yes i literally mean wiggling) with the occasional jump out of the raft & push in addition to the wiggling. We met some friendly fellas that did help us a couple of times....one guy even picked up our raft with us in it to get us off a rock. I told him he was my new hero.

The company picked us up in an old bread truck. This was something else. They had wooden benches around the interior of the truck. We weren't the only ones on the truck either. It was packed with a variety of people. The conversations were interesting--prison stories, mall trips, and a lot of laughing at a dog.

We headed to our nonghetto hotel next. It was only a dollar more to have an "executive room" so we ponied up the dollar. We prettied up, bought gas, and headed to the Gristmill. It was prom night & tons of highschoolers were out in their best.

After dinner we went to the amphitheater on the horseshoe to hear the one and only Spazmatics play. I don't know how they do it but they're better at every show. Each show I have an even better time than before which blows me away. It was a family show so the guys now have the affection of about thirty teenage/elementary age girls. These guys took the time to talk to the girls & take pictures with them. How nice are they?

Sunday we hit up San Marcos. I got three pairs of dollar sunglasses. Best deal ever. They're ghetto fabulous & I love them! We met Ryan & Sandy for lunch(these girls are incredible--guaranteed to make you smile) before we headed home.

I learned a little lesson about 35 that day. Sometimes people decide to brake for no reason. I don't know if they just wanted to slow down & enjoy the day but it took us about an hour longer to get home. To avoid any frustration, we did opt to stop at a dairy queen. *Turtle Blizzards are absolutely wonderful.* After all, ice cream is the answer to any problem (fyi tomorrow is free cone day at Ben & Jerry's).

This was a wonderful weekend. I hope your weekend was great; if it wasn't, have some ice cream.

what's that say?

Today I busted out my bedazzled shirt. All day students have asked, "What's that say? Spongebob?" No, no precious children, it says Spazmatics. This leads to "what?" I then explain about how I'm a little bit of a groupie for an 80s coverband out of Austin. The students then give me a look that expresses exactly what they're thinking, "my teacher is a dork."

storms

I feel like I'm back in Oklahoma. All of the local tv stations have weather coverage on, the tornado sirens are blaring, and my next door neighbor is out in his driveway checking out the sky. I joined him for about twenty minutes watching the sky. We exchanged tornado stories. It was good times. The rest of the neighbors were inside. The storm should hit in the next ten to fifteen minutes. Part of me wants to just hang outside while the storm comes in....memories of wall clouds, making a mad dash to the cellar, and carrying a weather radio are flooding my memory. ahhhhh....a slice of home in my new life. Good times. :-)

gillies girl

On second thought, if I were ever in the position to choose one of the amazing musicians to date or marry or you know spend the day with, I would pick *drum roll please* Ben Gillies of Silverchair. Not only could he give me the drum roll but he's got a crazy mustache which just intrigues me. Seriously check that 'stache out. Isn't it crazy? I love it! Why would he do such a thing...who really can pull off that kind of facial hair? hehehehhe Don't you think we could be quite the pair? He could rock his crazy mustache & I'd rock my crazy bedazzled t-shirts.

Silverchair

I think I should meet these boys...and one of them should fall madly in love with me. Sarah Gillies, Sarah Johns, or Sarah Joannou all sound pretty lovely. Although, I am a little partial to the way Sarah Joannou sounds....but really any of those three would be incredible last names. ;-)

If you're not sure who these very rock-n-roll looking men are to my left, let me introduce you to one of my all time favorite bands: Silverchair. They're amazing!!!

I bought The Best of Silverchair vol. 1 on Thursday & have probably listened to it fifty times so far. I can't get enough...seriously, I can't get enough. I remember when I found a copy of Young Modern & all I did was listen to it for a month.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to do the same thing with this one too. Lately I want to hear the same song over & over again: Pure Massacre.

People dying for no reason at all
Age is no difference or if you're large or small.
Families being torn apart.
Doesn't have to be this way.
Some people, just have no heart.
It's happening every day.
Pure massacre,Pure massacre...
Machine guns pumping, hearts thumping,
Death is all around.
People crying for freedom,
No one hears the sound,
[Chorus]
There's people crying.
There's people dying.
But someone's taken it all, yeah.
[Repeat Last Verse][Chorus]
It's gonna be a pure massacre.Yeah!

Good stuff right? This song pumps me up and makes me want to go to Africa really bad....which, ok isn't that hard to do, but it does increase my longing. Couldn't you see me with one of them in Africa? I think it could work...

razzle dazzle

Since I work at my church, weekends are always interesting. Doing something on Saturday nights isn't always a viable option. So last night I was very surprised when a very random but sincere dream came true!!!

As I was leaving church, I stopped off at wal-mart to pick up some milk but let with so much more. I picked up some t-shirts for Alissa, Amanda, Lindsey, and myself. I went home, dropped off the milk, and grabbed my puff paint.

Lindsey & I started to make our Spazmatics t-shirts when we realized we needed a bit more of puff paint. We head back to the store and go to the puff paint section. As we were debating the finer points of speckled puff paint vs. day glow, I saw it.

It was on the shelf--unassuming and completely awesome. A ghetto fabulous, off brand bedazzler!!!! I've wanted a bedazzler since college as I'm a lean, mean t-shirt making machine.

I bedazzled a fantastic Spazmatics shirt--it's so funny. I didn't have a catchy phrase, just not enough of the same "gems" which makes it look ridiculous. All of the consonants are in a silver except the t which is gold and the vowels are jewel toned. I LOVE it!!!

This morning I saw the guys & told them the great news. They weren't excited; when they get their bedazzled t-shirts, I bet they'll go crazy...hehehehe :-)

fyi

I think cherry yogurt may be the greatest yogurt of all time!


The Spazmatics are playing at the Glass Cactus tonight--it should be a fantastic show! I've recruited several people to come & check them out. Sean asked me if I was employed by them because I am always inviting people to their shows. Silly Seanny...I'm just a fan...a slightly crazed fan.


We lost power last night...I had no idea it stormed until I saw the news. I have slept through tornadoes before.

I like to drink my coffee black...it's bad coffee if I have to doctor it. Don't get me wrong, I love some fancy coffee but my favorite is straight black coffee. So good!

Ultimate frisbee makes me happy.

I love Earth Day. Shelly has an adorable Earth day t-shirt on today & I love it! It's super cute...I may just need to get one.

I love, love, love lime in my dr pepper. It always slightly bothers the good people at sonic.

I freaked out yesterday about something no normal girl would really freak out about...but at least it was only a very minimal freak out. It passed very quickly. I'm thinking the next time something like this occurs, I won't freak out at all.

Today is Abby's birthday! This will be her last birthday in Africa for a while--she'll be stateside in a couple of months!

Which one...

I came to the realization that I am not strictly a modern day Emma Woodhouse. I am a hybrid of Emma Woodhouse & Marianne Dashwood. :-) It's shocking how that works but trust me, it does.

This brings me to the question: should I end up with a Mr. Knightley or a Colonel Brandon? Which one is best for me?

I must say that I would gladly choose Mr. Knightley over Colonel Brandon for fear of walking all over him. The thought of someone so willingly do anything for me is scary. I'd hate to take advantage of the situation. I'd love to think that I would be a big enough person to not do this...but I probably would.

Mr. Knightley, however, wouldn't tolerate any of that. He would cause me to be a better person--he would sharpen me.

Of course, they are fictional characters...and these are my own musings. I could be better off with a Colonel Christopher Brandon. Maybe I would love him & NOT take advantage of him. But then again, I don't have to worry about this as there aren't any modern day Mr. Knightleys and Colonel Brandons fighting for my affection at the moment...so it doesn't actually matter.

If there are any who do begin to vie for my affection, well, that would make me a very lucky lady....