Weekend Update

Is it still ok to write a weekend update on a Tuesday? I hope so because (in case you couldn't tell) I'm doing it.

My weekend was a whirlwind which I suppose is why I didn't update on Monday. But even though the weekend was jam-packed, it was fun and full of good things. Here are some highlights:

I saw The Avengers: The reviews of the Avengers are all over the place, ranging from:

Best: "it's the most amazing movie you'll see in your life time."
to
Worst: "it's the most amazing movie you'll see this decade."

With reviews like that, I really had no idea what to expect. Was it going to be the best movie I'd ever seen? Or just the best movie I'd seen this year? Was I going to get a crush on the obvious eye candy, Captain America? Or the less obvious eye candy, Bruce Banner, in Hulk form?

I think the best part of the movie for me was the crowded audience I was in, specifically the super animated man sitting next to me. About 20 minutes into the movie he jumped and said, "Oh crap. I fell asleep!" But later he made up for it by stomping his feet excitedly whenever the Hulk was in a scene and occasionally loudly saying things like, "Where's the rewind button!?!?!" I enjoyed him.

In conclusion, here's my review of The Avengers: "Yeah, it was pretty good."

Ethan's birthday party: My adorable nephew, Ethan, turned six last week. One quick story about his birthday party: I had to leave a little early to pick up my grandma for a graduation party, and when Ethan found out I was leaving early, he grabbed me by the hand, led me into the kitchen, and told me to get a piece of cake before I left. Adorable? Or super adorable? I love that kid.

Graduation party: Later that day, we had a family graduation party for our three recent college grads (including one with her masters degree): Polly, Dana, and Katherine.

We had a bbq, played a game called Ladder Ball, and had a bonfire. My nephew, James, and I created some entertainment for people when we were playing our own version of Ladder Ball (which has nothing to do with the way the game should actually be played), and got one of the balls stuck in the tree. I'll let the following pictures tell the rest of the story:

I saw a snake.  And lived to tell the tale. The snake was heading right into the bonfire, but Brian saved it, and guided it to safety (shaking fist at Brian). Silly Brian. I don't know what it is about snakes, but they're creepy. I think it's the way they move - it's too snakey. Last night I laid in bed, wondering what could make snakes less scary. Legs wouldn't work because then they'd be more like centipedes. Fur wouldn't help either. I finally came up with the solution: mustaches. I really don't think I'd mind snakes if they had mustaches.

Mother's Day Mother's Day was fun. We had a nice dinner for my mom and gave her some gifts. My mom is great, and I love her a ton. Here's a picture of us from about 20 years ago*

How was your weekend?

* Indulge me.

Bear Cubs

I've mentioned the bear sanctuary I'll be visiting later this summer several times recently, so imagine my surprise when pictures from said sanctuary began appearing on my Facebook news feed!! My friend Hoon, who is in the U.P. for a dental rotation, visited our friend Dustin's family owned bear sanctuary and posted some pictures from his visit. 

I could hardly take in the cuteness! Look how cuddly those bear cubs look! With Hoon's permission, I had to share with you some pictures from his visit to the sanctuary. 

Cuteness overload, right!? My camping trip isn't until August, so I kinda need to stop thinking about those adorable bears or I'll just torture myself for the next four months. But I just had to share since several of you have asked about this place! Is anyone else as curious about this place as I am?

Tube Top

Yesterday my sister, Heather, told a story on her Facebook page about my four year old niece, Sammy. Sammy recently made $1.00 selling something at a garage sale and was super excited about earning her first dollar! She begged my sister to take her to the store so she could pick out some candy to buy with her own money.

Here she is, proudly holding up her dollar and the candy she's about to buy with it.

Her story reminded me of my own childhood purchases. My brother and sisters and I used to ride our bikes to the local drug store and spend our allowance on root beer, Twinkies, and Doritos. You guys, I loved Doritos so much. My childhood dream was that some day as an adult, I'd have enough money to have a room FULL of Doritos, like Scrooge McDuck's room full of coins. I need to get on that.

But my first "big" purchase was when I saved up enough money to buy a tube top from Ben Franklin (remember those stores?). My mom and grandma and I went to the store and I just had to have the most beautiful article of clothing I'd ever seen. It probably cost about $6 and I was so proud of it! It was a rainbow of pastels - pink, purple, mint, yellow, and peach. To my six year old self, it was beautiful. It was ruffled, and in design it looked something like this:

(source)

Sad news though, everyone. That was my first and last tube top.

What was your first childhood purchase?

Wednesday Thoughts

Sometimes "Wednesday Thoughts" is a hard post to write. Today, for example, I'm kind of in a "blerg" sort of mood. Just feeling kinda blah, you know? We all have days like that I suppose.

So I think the right thing to do for Wednesday Thoughts today is to write about "things that are making me happy" rather than vent about all the things that are buggin me. (That would make for a more interesting post, but would probably lead to fighting as well, so I'll just do the happy one instead.)

1. Kittens
I captured this wild kitty yesterday and he temporarily made my life complete until he escaped my friends arms and ran free. He was so cute!

2. Vespas
I've decided owning a Vespa would make me happy. Random, I know.

 3. Graduations
Three members of my family just graduated! Katherine with her MFA and Polly and Dana with their bachelors degrees. I couldn't be more proud of them! And I'm really looking forward to the big graduation party we're having for them Saturday night!

4. Holidays
This Sunday is Mother's Day! And this weekend is also my nephew's SIXTH birthday! I can't wait to celebrate both.

5. Spring
Last night my friend Erin came over to hula hoop outside. The weather was perfect - it was the kind of weather meant for optimal human comfort. You know - neither too hot nor too cold. Perfect spring weather. And it got me thinking about what will be appearing soon: fireflies!

6. Hooping
Hula hooping has been making me happy lately. It's relaxing, fun, and good exercise! Win-win-win! Even my friend Adam has gotten into it. He likes it way too much when I reference him on my blog so I try not to but this is too funny not to share. After hooping a lot recently, he declared himself: "a hoopa loopa, like an oompa loompa but different."

 

7. Camping plans IN ACTION! Already requested some time off in August for the trip and now can start the planning. Super excited to hold a bear cub and see the Falls. I wonder if I can combine the two and bring the bear cub TO the falls? Probably not, huh? Oh well.

Ok, after focusing on the positive for a bit I think I'm feeling a little better.

What's making you happy today?

Happy Wednesday!

Summer!!

I'm excited for summer. Every year I make a little list of things I want to do this summer. Usually it's things like: "hike to a lighthouse" and "find a summer romance." This year my list is going to be different. I still want to do those things of course, but they should just be a given. They don't even need to be listed anymore.

Here are a few of the other things I'm looking forward to doing this summer:

* Go Camping! I've had a real camping itch lately. Wait, that sounds like a rash I got from camping or something. What I mean is, I've been really wanting to go camping lately. So I have decided to plan a camping trip in the UP (upper peninsula) this summer. I want to see Tahquamenon falls there, which I haven't seen since I was a kid, and I want to go to my friend's bear sanctuary. Yes, that is actually a thing. You get to have your picture taken holding a baby bear cub! I'm all over that!

source

* Run a 5K. So, I'm on week six of the Couch-to-5K program and it's still not easy for me. Can I still learn to love running? Or should I love it by now? Either way, I'm running a 5K in June whether I like it or not. I'm kind of excited about this since I've never done it before.

* Bike around Mackinac Island. I have done this before, but it's been awhile and I need to get back there. Mackinac Island is a small island right between the upper and lower peninsulas. You can rent bikes and ride all the way around - it's an easy ride (flat and only 8 miles). The views are gorgeous. Though lots of people live on the island, and there are loads of B&Bs and shops and restaurants, there are no cars on the whole island. Only carriages, horses, and bikes. It's enchanting.

* Eat at Bill's Drive-In. Bill's Drive-In is a local place known for it's amazing hot dogs and homemade root beer. I've been hearing a lot of buzz about it lately. I haven't been there since high school (so, like two years*), so I think it's time to go back.

* Get my bike fixed and ride in the Tour De Troit. My friends Sara and Sarah did it last year and I was super sad not be able to join them because of a bad back tire on my bike. This summer I'm going to get that fixed and prepare for the tour. Last year 4,400 people registered and rode their bikes through the historic districts of Detroit. Yes, please!

* Go to a couple drive-in movies. Drive-ins are one of my favorite things about summer. The drive-in I usually go to looks like it hasn't had ANY work/improvements done since it was first built (back when drive-ins were first invented), but I think that adds to the charm. I can imagine Archie Andrews is in the car (jalopy) next to me.**

Other than this list of goals, I have the usual summer plans: eat lots of watermelon, go to the farmers market a bunch, swim in Lake Michigan, go to Ludington several times, watch old timey baseball games, go to as many Tigers games as I can, wear white, get a suntan, roast marshmallows and hot dogs over a campfire, etc.  Oh my goodness, I can't wait!

How about you? What are some things you want to do this summer?

* yeah right.
** this joke is a stretch.

Snip Snip

So, I got my hair cut today, as I mentioned earlier. The change isn't drastic by some people's standards, but for me it kinda is! So I thought I'd show it to you. It'll probably look different (worse) when I do it myself.

I forgot to take a before picture, but here's a picture taken on Sunday and you can see the length clearly here.

And here's one of me tonight. I know my eyes look really open, but it's because I stink at having normal eyes in pictures. I'm terrified of blinking so I overcompensate. It's an issue. Once, I had some passport pictures taken, and they were the worst EVER. I had my head down, and was looking up (I was doing what the guy told me to do), and the pictures looked all shadowy and creepy. I looked like a terrorist suspect. So maybe that explains the occasional "wide eyed" look I give in pictures. I'm tired of being questioned by secret service for looking suspicious.

But wow, that's a digression. New haircut:

Shorter in time for summer! Woohoo!

Wednesday Thoughts

Well, it's finally Wednesday! This week has been really rainy and gray where I live, so I'm kinda ready for it to speed along to the weekend. As per usual, I have some thoughts for you this morning. They are all unrelated so I'm going to number them to make it easier to follow along, k?

1. As I have mentioned on here at least once before, I have started running recently. About a month ago, to be precise. And to be honest, I'm not a natural runner. By which I mean, even five weeks into my training, I'm not awesome. I can do it, but it's clear I wasn't born to run. And I'm  not an attractive runner, to say the least. In fact, when I run my first race next month, I want no "after" pictures taken! I tend to turn a reddish purple color after a run, reminiscent of Violet Beauregarde after she ate the three-course dinner chewing gum even though Willy Wonka specifically told her not to.

Me, crossing the finish line (in color, not size)

Yesterday something kinda cool happened when I was on my run though. I was struggling. I only had another five minutes to go but I was losing stamina. Just then another runner ran by me, going to the other direction, and he reached out and side-fived me (like a high five, but on the side)! It made me feel like a legit runner, part of a club. It was the motivation I needed to finish up.

2. I'm just going to warn you right now - if you're a classy individual who is offended by bathroom talk, just skip to number 3. I'll meet you there.

I hung out with a guy friend last night and something weird happened as I was leaving. My friend was walking me out to my car and it was super dark outside. So, I asked him a simple question about turning the porch lights on and found out more than I'd bargained for.

me: why don't you turn the porch light on?
him: cause I don't want people to know I'm peeing.
me: how will they know you're in the bathroom from outside?
him: because I'm going to pee outside after you leave.
me: What!? Why?
him: because it's awesome.
me: What!? I don't understand! Why would you pee outside?
him: because peeing outside is better. Ask any guy! All guys love peeing outside! Put it on your thing! (Translation: put it on your blog.)

I'd be kinda surprised if I got a bunch of comments from guys confirming this, but I was curious if this is a thing.

3. I'm getting my hair done after work today and I'm thinking about mixing it up and getting a few inches cut off. I'm nervous about this though. I know hair grows, but it can be really traumatizing for a woman to lose too much length on her hair. I'm sure I'm not the only woman who's cried over a hair cut  before. When I look back on my hair experience, I can think of many mistakes but these are my top four biggest regrets:

1. cutting it too short (cried)
2. accidentally dyeing it purple (had it fixed)
3. purposely dyeing it red (huge mistake, ended up having it stripped....both times)
4. short bangs (rarely a good idea)

Do you have any hair regrets?

Happy Wednesday!


PS, Happy birthday Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson! Call me!