I totally want to cut off your skin and wear it to my birthday that’s coming up.

I’ve been working a lot lately. I mean A LOT. Until Sunday, then I started a week-long summer vacation that turned out to be pretty awesome. Let me tell you what I did.

Celebrated my brother’s birthday with my dad by singing Happy Birthday to him on the phone, then going to Pirates 3 without him (he lives far away) and sharing a Coke that we refilled 3 times (and still didn’t get our money’s worth)

Had nachos and ice cream for Nacho Home Evening

Watched Blades of Glory twice

Saw Evan Almighty (pretty good – family fun with a message or two)

Saw Wild Hogs (the $1.75 was only worth the first hour, there’s not much of funny after that)

Saw Hot Fuzz (best of the week – it’s so refreshing to see an old lady get drop-kicked in the face)

Gossiped with my friend Laura, who was visiting from California, over yummy pastries

Totally blew my healthy eating plan

Bought a new car (well, not new, but it’s in pretty good shape)

Heard my favorite mash-up to date: 50-Inch Nails (In Da Club vs. Closer)

That’s six movies in five days. There’s something about going to the movies in the summer when it’s hot outside and sipping on the Cherry Coke Zero and microwave popcorn you sneaked in.

Happy summer to me. And this was just the beginning…

And…Happy b-doy, Linda.

My mom turns 29 today. The day before she was due to leave on a 2-week trip to Eastern Europe, I broke my wrist snowboarding. She hit a pothole on the way to the ski resort to pick me up, breaking two tire rims, then spent the rest of the day in the emergency room at the hospital with me. It was her job to let them know when the morphine was running out and she did it gloriously. Oh, and remember that time, on my 20th birthday how you tried to write “Happy B-day, Kristy” on my cake, but it came out looking like “Happy b-doy?” That was funny.

Happy birthday to the lady with good skin. Love you.

Happy b-doy, bubby.

Today my little brother is 30. Considering we’re 4.89 years and many, many miles apart, we’re pretty close. I was going to say “I’ve always admired…” but I’ll change it to “when I started to like him, I began to admire…” his sense of humor, his honest way of being, and his good heart. He loves deeply and laughs heartily. He chose an awesome woman to marry so I could have a sister and they made super cool babies so I could be an aunt. He endured years of torture from me then became my best friend.

Thanks, Jeremy.
Love, Sissy

He’s the one on the right.

(Also, Happy Birthday George Michael and Cousin Jeff. It’s an awesome day for birthdays.)

Last night, I stared Temptation in the face,

served them coffee, and made small talk with them while they partook of room-temperature (by request) bottled water, honey, sugar, and perfectly laid-out lemon wedges. I marveled at their energy (they’re not young, you know, nor are they exactly what you’d call “in shape” for that matter) and the guts (or something) it takes to wear identical rhinestone-studded suits the color somewhere between the lemon wedges and sunshine on a cloudy day. Although, I tried to keep my dancing and singing inconspicuous when they sang “The Way You Do The Things You Do” (Wenmei!) and “Treat Her Like a Lady,” I couldn’t for “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” There is just something surreal and dreamlike about motown in the mountains on a warm summer night.

Maybe it was just my imagination…

If you see me, ask me how it went.

This is my last post today, I swear.

Here’s a nugget for you. Last night a woman walked into my place of work and in all seriousness asked me (I am so not making this up), “do you know if there are any running trails around here?” As I stared at her, trying to stave off the smart-ass responses that my brain was coming up with, I nodded toward the window, behind which is a beautiful mountain, with my (well-groomed) eyebrow raised and said, “yeah, kind of all over the mountain…” (which was still pretty smart-assy). She had no reaction, as if she were still waiting for me to answer her question. After another minute of silence, she announced, “well, I guess we’ll just go run on the treadmill.”

Jet Blue is the next best thing.

This has been around for a while, but if you’re like me and haven’t seen it, well, you haven’t seen it.

If I Could…

I found this poem I wrote circa 1999 and decided it would fill some blog space.

If I could, I’d tell you what you mean to me
If I could, I’d tell you how my heart heart still bursts when I see you
If I could, I’d touch your face and kiss you softly
If I could, I’d tell you how hard I’ve fallen for you
I’d ask you why you pull me in and push me away
I’d explain why I do the same
I’d tell you how I hate being in the same room without speaking
I’d tell you how much it hurts to play this game
I’d call you once a day so you could make me laugh
I’d tell you how good you look in those jeans
I’d spend every moment with you in real life
And not just in my dreams

And because it’s Music Monday…

I don’t have cable, so I only get to watch my favorite thing on tv, music videos, when I fly Jet Blue, which I did two weeks ago. And I saw this. Holy Holy. A few years ago, a friend of mine, who is a local dj scored some tickets to a Counting Crows/John Mayer concert. I’ve never been a huge fan of either of them and seeing them live still didn’t change my opinion. Fortunately Maroon 5 opened for them and it made me happy. I even gave my date a really big hug at the end of the night I was so happy. But holy HOLY. I did not remember Adam Levine being that hot.

Gotta keep on movin’…

I set a goal this summer to do some hiking. I used to do a lot but have slacked off the past couple of years. It really is a shame to not only live so close to these beautiful mountains, but work in them as well, and not take advantage of them. Here is a short photo essay of the first of what will be many hikes this summer. Thank you, Brent, for the pictures. Too bad we didn’t get any of His Awesomeness.

I.Am.Impetus.

Tonight, Brent called me an impetus. This in itself is not completely blog-worthy. But coupled with the fact that a few days ago I got a text message also calling me an impetus makes it so. I’ve never in my life been called an impetus (to my face). Then two different people in one week’s time use it. Weird. It makes me feel like this.