A Birthday Passes

I am the Queen of Birthdays. At least the queen of my own birthday. But this year was a little different type of royalty. I used to think the world lived for my birthday. Surely, the whole world was waiting for my fifth birthday when I dressed up as a Japanese geisha, or my eighth birthday when I had a teddy bear party with all my bears and their friends, or my twenty third birthday where certainly the whole world waited with baited breath for me to arrive on a small Honduran island, or my twenty fifth birthday (shared by one lovely Eleanor Helms), where I was a rock star diva for a night. Birthdays have changed on the other side of 25 and its been nice.

For this my twenty seventh birthday, I got so many nice little surprises I had to document it:

Surprise 1: Liz made me a cake. It was crooked and only half way iced, but it was delicious and lovely nonetheless.

Surprise 2: Carmen put tall candles on the aforementioed cake and held off on it until I was done with my now almost two weeks late project (nothing like a little understanding on your day of birth). Then she gave me a lovely and thoughtful present even though before I had unwittingly ruined her present by buying the exact same pair of earrings for myself.

Surprise 3: Sara and Brett made me a SCAVENGER HUNT and kept it a secret! There were clues and everything!!!!!!!! I couldn't even believe it. I also had some trouble with some of the clues, but whatever. I figured it out nonetheless. There was a new CD and a bar of home made soap (not a hint, I hope) and strawberry shortcake and beer. What more could a girl ask for?

Surprise 4: This was not really a surprise becuase I planned it, but it was nice anyways. Me, Carmen, Gwladys, Matt, Mo, Daniel, and Jessica all went out for fancy martinis. Twas the bomb to be loved enough that people would want to spend a precious free evening with me!

So, here's to a new year and to my lovely friends.

Holes

I do not know how to spell holey as in holes, empty spaces in things. Today I traveled in what I believe was the SECOND holey plane in one week. There were empty spaces in it.

The day was beautiful: I had coffee at an old haunt, I got my hair cut (love a new do), I rode THE RAPID and made a friend (for the time I was riding rapidly on THE RAPID... which is a bus), and then I hopped in a taxi destined for the Grand Rapids International Airport... all 10 gates of it! Oh the adventure!

I thought I was going to get bumped, but to no avail. Free tickets and I were not meant to be friends. And so I boarded, ready to begin my safe and warm footed journey home. Again I was wrong! I would not have warm feet on this journey. I THINK THERE WAS A HOLE BY MY FOOT. How could only my foot be freezing and nothing else? I was sitting on the emergency exit isle; they had trusted me with the lives of all of these other 49 people! And I was privy to the secret information about the hole in the plane. What would I do?!?! Nothing except freeze my foot and try and keep it safe and away from the door... surely my heavy doc martens would swing the already faulty door open and I would plummet to my doom, followed by the other 49 people on the plane, as the air sucked us out and away. It didnt happen but I think it is only because I was perched on my feet, protecting us from imminent death.

Plane #2 was no better and it was not on time either. It was very late and I was very cranky and very hungry. When the plane finally arrived, I went to board. They were not calling the Zones as usual, but who really gives a care. Apparently the lady behind me who was pretending to be 900 years old cares. She stood behind me in line talking in the frail voice. She was like 45, maybe even younger... maybe she was 16... and she kept whimpering LITERALLY WHIMPERING. "why aren't they calling the zones? whats wrong?" I said very plainly that they were probably just trying to board us faster. then there was a sound, maybe an alarm maybe a cell phone, and she jumped and shreiked like my grandma times 3 million (I love my grandma, this is more for the effect). I ignored her. She kept whimpering all through the line. I kept thinking to myself "I will not look at her. She just wants me to look at her." I was asked to step to the side so they could fix my seat assignment. "What is wrong? What is wrong with the plane?" she whimpered. I should have told her there was a hole in it.

When I finally arrived in Virginia they ahd lost my bags and some time soon they will deliver them to me. My roommate Gwladys thinks they don't do that in France (she is from France). I am glad they do it here.

Day After Easter

It is the day after easter. lovely. if you look at the pictures you wills ee some of the magical fun of easter weekend. thats me and my friend sara in some bushes in the woods. we went for a walk there. and sara on a little frozen lake. we didnt walk ON it but BY it. and then thats me and sara and brett in their house. we walked into the hosue sat down and ate cookies. its a bit funny to say all of this bc i think only sara and brett know i have a web log. hi to both of you.

we also played cranium and i am going to pronounce that i STILL believe that the humming one -hum dinger- is the hardest, perhaps a big conspiracy. i dont think any one can really hum a tune right. and then it just makes you laugh. and then you get stuck humming the same part over and over and then youre just pissed. a pissed hummer. seems to be an oxymoron. humming is happy and joyful, but generally not thought of as pissy but then all of a sudden you are put on the spot and asked to hum for points. its an evil trick. i luckily did not have to hum in cranium. that was all left to sara. and also, her friend mandy spells things backwards very well. congratulations to her on that. i think i might try and adapt cranium so that my students could play it. i would need to change some of the answers bc i dont hitnk they would know, for example, how to act like tina turner. although i do.

anyways, the girls won at cranium and then i won at catch phrase bc i got to be on both teams. we reworked the rules. so, all in all it was a victorious easter weekend for me. who is the cahmpion? me. I AM THE CHAMPION. sing songs to your hearts content (songs about me).

today i am on vacation. i am sleeping in for a whole week. it is my rockin spring break 2005! i dont think spring break "rocks" as much when you are a graduate student who has seen the evil of credit card debt. nonetheless with the aforementioned games and walks in the woods it was great. AND THEN the yonker/schipper clan welcomed me AGAIN to their house for holidays. i was thinking back and i think i may have been with their family more than with my family on major holidays in the last few years. and while there i also learned to play poker from an adorable six year old boy named dylan who is adept at the game. he taught me a thing or two.

and now i am looking for a job on the internet. these are the cities i am looking at thus far. tell me what you think:

Boston, MA
Washington, DC
New York City
Grand Rapids, MI
Seattle, WA

i am also trying to think of some place sunny and open, with lots of fun things to explore. i know a lot of those cities are big, but the reason is that i like public transportation. not necessarily a big city. i may add to this list. or i may subtract. phoenix, arizona has a nice ring to it. i dont really know what i am talking about.

Easter Days

Here's some pictures. I'll write later.

I Made a Blog

Today I went to Yankee Springs. Hiking, not candles. And then I made a blog. Wait, yankee Springs is not candles at all. Yankee something. I went to Yankee Springs. It was loveley. I am on vacation.