catching up

I'm home from vacation!

I went to Italy for just about two weeks with my three younger brothers and my dad. It was pretty instense. We saw amazing art, buildings and mountains. We played cards and shopped at fancy stores. I bought some watercolors in Venice, where my dad lost all of our passports. That was the biggest non-fun part of the trip (there were a few). We had to go to the police station for awhile, I took a lovely nap there, for my dad to fill out a report. The two older boys, Fro and Ryan, and I were pretty pissed so dad bought us a bottle of wine with diner that night. We ended up having to go to the embassy in Milan and got five new passports for the price of $600 with a bonus 4 AM call to my mother since Mikey is under 18.

Anway, we had a good time. We got lost every day but the last day, and that day we were running so late we thought we would miss the plane home. Driving in Italy is crazy. Street signs are very hard to see from the road and from what I can tell the drivers think that those lines on the pavement mean nothing.

The best part of the trip for me, (other than all that mushy getting to know my brothers as people kind of stuff) was that I had some big moments of inspiration and got some writing done. The trip also gave me a few more stories ideas so we'll hope that I follow through with them.

Now I'm home and trying to get back into the swing of work and home. I took this morning off of work because my throat feels so gross and nasty. Yesterday I sat myself at the computer and made myself type all of the notes and additions I wrote on the trip to the piece that I'm working on. Well almost all of them, just about done.

I got an email from a grad school in MN that I applied to about extending my application for their second semester acceptance. I hadn't really planned on moving from where I am, but more and more I think that it might be good for me. I'm sending in the paperwork they need so I guess we'll just have to see.

rant

Ok so yesterday I drove home and was getting all my crap together (for whatever reason I feel the need to take at least two books with me to work along with a notebook and usually like two water bottles) and prepared to exit my car. I looked for cars (my street is crowded cause you can park on both sides) and opened my door. When out of nowhere this dude on a bike flies past me, missing me by inches. He yelled "Watch for bikers!" as he scooted on off. Now I, in my flustered state, pretty much screeched "I'm sorry."

But here's the thing. He had the whole freaking road to bike - there were no cars coming in either direction for blocks, and yet he felt compelled to drive right by the car that had passed him a block before and just parked and obviously would have someone exiting the car in moments. Had he not said anything I would have probably just felt bad and then been careful from then on (or at least for the next week or so). BUT, because he had to tell me to watch for bikers in a condescending I'm-so-much-better-than-you-and-your-shitty-centra-with-a-broken-headlight kind of way, I'm just pissed. Fuck you biker man.

Now I live in probably the most biker friendly city in the Midwest. But seriously most of these bikers do not have common sense! And yeah, ok you're a better person than I am because you bike to work and I drive and you clearly are more in tune with the world and issues and whatever, but seriously I do not care.

AND, now that I'm on a roll here, when I was younger I was hit by a car while I was on my bike. Through no fault of my own, the guy took a corner too fast and clipped my back tire sending my flying through the air. I was like 10 at the time so you can imagine how fast the guy slammed on his breaks to see if I was ok. Which I was. But you know what? I didn't tell the guy - oh you should watch for bikers. I FREAKING WATCHED OUT FOR MORON DRIVERS FROM THAT POINT ON. And you should too biker man. Cause if I see you again I might be tempted to throw my door out on purpose. Jeesh.

Writing

Right now I'm trying to motivate myself to seriously work more on my writing. I printed off about 40 pages of a story I'm working on and I trying to edit what I have at this point. I have to write everything by hand for the most part. I just feel much more connected to what I'm doing if I have the pen in my hand. Then I can type it. And then I print it out and write all over the printed copy, which makes me feel like I'm working in the writing center at school again.

Back to it!

goals

I've been reading a lot of blogs about people in different industries who are extremely passionate about what they are doing. I want that for myself. I was digging through some of my writing files and stumbled across a few pieces where I have no idea what my overarching goal was but I liked what I read. I'm going to try to make time to write every day. I feel so much better and more at peace with myself when I'm writing and I could use some good feelings. :) I'm going to continue to read about others who do their best and are committed to their goals to inspire myself to do the same.

Birthday Highlights

My best friend came to see me. She stayed all weekend and we had a great time. Here are some sweet highlights!

• Girl's night: four of us sat around eating everything in sight and drank a few bottles of wine. We then watched Pride and Prejudice; there was much swooning.
• Liz and I went to the gym for about three hours on Saturday. We worked out then went swimming. Hot tub and steam room. mmmmm.
• We then ate half a thing of french onion dip and chips.
• Another high school friend came to see me! I like her!
• Lots of friends came out to diner with me.
• We went to my fave bar and I went from 0 to drunk in about 3 min.
• Some guys tried to pick us up over a shared love of Poweraide.
• I laid down on my neighbors yard.
• Awesome Sunday breakfast followed by Sunday shopping.

One bad thing about diner was that the wait staff was horrible. I called a week prior for a table of 14. They said no problem. I talked to them that day to confirm that everything was fine. They said no problem. We get there and they had two tables of six. We had to sit seperately and squish. The waitress poured water in my soda and was so flightly and weird that it was hard to enjoy the meal. Luckily there was booze and good people.

I spent my acutal birthday at my mom's. Rachel was adorable; she kept saying happy birthday and telling me that we were going to have cake. Mom and I went shopping, then dad took Mikey and I to go buy some books. We had my fav pot roast for diner. Rachel gave me a picture she drew that I love. And my mom got me some cute jeans and Twilight on dvd. I made her watch half of it and I about died giggling. When I went to leave it was raining so hard that I got drenched just bringing my laundry to the car. But I made it home safe!

hey brother

Ok so I just now realized that yesterday, when I was talking to my oldest younger brother, he willinging and without provocation started telling me about a girl he was going to go see this weekend. One that he's dated before. And my response was pretty much "oh, cool." Now I wonder if I should have asked him anything more about it or said anything. I mean, he never talks about girls. We all are just waiting for him to walk in someday with a wife and kids. We're not big on talking about relationships in my family. I mean, when my wedding got called off I think Jeffy and my mom were the only ones to talk to me about it (too be fair I wasn't really looking to talk about it).

I'm sure I'm over-thinking this whole thing with my brother. I liked that he mentioned it though. I never got to meet the girl but I hear good things about her.

2 topics for the price of one!

couple things going on right now

First of all the Office last night - WTF? I am so concerned for Jim right now it is not even funny. And thank the lord we had dvr because we all missed what Micheal said at the end. I don't even know if I can think about it without getting all flustered. This episode was on par with "The Dinner Party" as one of the more awkward Office episodes.

The opening though was AMAZING. And of course it was classy.

Ok now that that is off my chest I am tweaking out with excitement because my BFF is coming to visit me this weekend! She's going to meet almost all of my new friends so I can prove they really exist. And we're all going out tomorrow night for my birthday at one of my fave restaurants. Liz and I plan on spending a whole lot of time tomorrow at my gym because it is pretty much the bomb. We're going to work out, swim, sit in the hot tub and then chill in the sauna. And she just told me that she gets to leave work early now!