Summer is for hiking, summer is for swimming, and laughing, and jumping, and playing. Summer is for dancing around your house in your undies, listening to Bruno Mars' Lazy song. Summer is for tan lines, and sunblock, and sleeping on the trampoline. Summer is for otter pops and for music festivals. Summer is for curling up with a good book, and for holding hands. Summer is for slumber parties and Peanut Butter Sammiches. Summer is for trying new adventures, and letting go of old ones.
and on those rare days when Summer just doesn't live up to your expectations, Summer is for midnight Wal-Mart trips with your best friend to get the "essentials"
the list:
1 - Various Hostess Snacks. Nothing beats Hostess.. Except French Fries.
2 - tunes. Make sure they're good ones.
3 - chocolate milk. It does a body good.
4 - Mountain Dew. Need I say more?
5 - Chapstick. In case the opportunity presents itself, our lips must be soft.
6 - Stur-D Vitamin Water. It tastes delicious and helps to balance the nutritional value pf the cart.. At least in our minds.
If you think that I'm an ever-happy, overly optimistic person, please skip over this exaggerated post full of pointless venting. I really don't want to burst your bubble if I have you tricked into believing that my life is just dandy all the time.
When I have fun, I imply having fun in the most innocent way possible.
I mean come on, who can say they made it through high school without ever touching alcohol or drugs? The statistics were against me, but I did it. I'd have to say that's pretty incredible.
My idea of fun would be plopping myself in the middle of the children's section of Barnes and Noble. Or flying a kite. Or feeding ducks. Or hiking. Or sitting in a quiet corner writing in my journal and reading my scriptures. If you read my blog, you'd know this.
I mean, Just this morning I excitedly flipped through the pages of the newest psychology today magazine.. just for fun!
I'd have to say that my idea of fun is extremely tame compared to most kids my age..
Yet I'm still "irresponsible" and need to grow up.
Go figure.
The ironic part of this is that the text message telling me that I needed to act like a high school graduate had at least 5 MAJOR spelling mistakes. Way to go, dude. Glad all the time and money spent on schooling taught you the difference between "you're" and "your", "then" and "than", and "do" and "due". Since you're so superior and intelligent, you'd think you would have figured that out by now, right?
So in conclusion,
If growing up means giving up all things enjoyable in life, count me out.
Do it. Take my diploma, my license, my car. Make me share a room and go to bed at 8:30. I'll hand over my cell phone and delete my facebook. I'll give up my itunes account and go back to reading harry potter by flashlight after lights out.
Just PLEASE stop trying to take away my ability to enjoy life.
I'm pretty sure I can get through just about everything as long as I have a pen, my faith, and an optimistic attitude.
Robert has been asking me to go hiking with him for about five months now. This week, I finally agreed to join him.
Now.. Cydney has started a new workout called Turbo-fire. She's been asking me to join her for about a month. I finally decided to join, and now I'm hooked.
Thursday morning, I woke up, brushed my teeth, and did a 45 minute cardio workout. It was spectacular and put me in an excellent mood. I decided that 45 minutes wasn't enough of a workout, so I went and swam laps at my pool. I hopped out to dry off just as Robert called me to make sure I was awake. Me? Asleep at 11 am? You'll never see it happen.
I ran a brush through my hair, threw on some mascara, filled up my camel-pack, grabbed some granola, and vegged in front of the computer til he showed up. (if you ever see me take longer than an hour to get ready, please shoot me.)
We grabbed some subway and headed up to mount Charleston.
The kid must have some faith in me, cause he handed his keys over and let me drive his truck up the mountain. Fortunately, we didn't die.
The hike was spectacular. The temperature was perfect. The sun was out. The trees provided shade. It was great!
I love being in the mountains, I really do. Being away from all the hustle and bustle of the city life just calms me down. It makes it so much easier to feel the spirit, and I spent a LOT of time just basking in the warm feeling, wishing I had my scriptures with me.
As we reached the last stretch, my body hit a brick wall. My legs started getting heavy and then decided they really didn't want to make it to the top of the hill at all. I pushed and pushed til I could see the waterfall spraying mist through the air. It was breathtaking. I climbed to the top of the hill (which is really pathetic.. The hill shouldn't have given me ANY problems.) and stared at the cascading waterfall as it fell into a big, snowy glacier.
Robert quickly climbed to the top of one of the snowy hills and slid down. I decided to follow, and quickly re-realized that I'm slightly afraid of descending down snowy slopes at fast speeds. I decided I was going to scoot down the hill, bit by bit, but that really didn't work. I slipped and was suddenly sliding down the hill. On my butt. In shorts.
Luckily, I survived.
Then we spotted some people emerging from the ice. We decided to check it out. Climbing up the slippery slope, we made it to a crevice between the mountain and the glacier. We climbed down and squeezed our way under the glacier and into the depths of the cave. What we found was dazzling. The waterfall was coming from directly above us, swirling and whirling its way through the ice and down to the stream beneath us. We were sprayed with the water as it danced it's way down, but sat mesmerized for a few seconds before realizing how cold it really was. We decided to climb back into the sunshine.
Robert decided to join another hiker in climbing up to the top of the waterfall and I opted out, deciding to stay where it was nice and safe. When he returned (HOURS later), he showed me pictures of a magically snowy place where you can skate across the ground in normal shoes. Obviously, he went to Narnia. There's really no other explanation.
It was a wonderfully lovely adventures. Here's some pictures:
And trees, they grow from the earth,
But sometimes they take to the sea.
No one could have known where they one day would be.
So come and wander with me.
You'll often find me writing down the odd things that people say. Here's a list of some that have been featured on my blog previously. I got a nice giggle out of them.
"I was lost in the Celestial Kingdom of flavor... Ha! I just made a Mormon joke!"
"I don't have rugged good looks, I just have regular good looks."
"We wont be a tricycle. We'll be three unicycles weaving in and out of eachother and we'll be legit."
"You can't even comprehend how much I want to make love to your socks."
"I hope you don't have any cats. I could totally see her killing a cat."
"I converted. I wasn't a mormon and now I am. And look at me! I still fart!"
"If you're going to dye my dog, you can't do it blue. She's a girl dog. She has to be pink."
"It's called love!" "No, it's called saliva."
"Hey, do you want to go on a date with me? We can read childrens books and bottle fruit!"
"What are you doing?" "Trying to hold your hand." "Oh.. I see. How about a hug?"
"I can't do that. I don't want to be the crazy guy knocking on porta-potties."
"Mom, I'm going to see a movie." "Okay, are you sneaking out?" "Yes." "Okay, love you!"
"Is my bouncy ball really in the trash? Wow. Real Mature."
"I think I'm in love." "Yeah, but does he know your name?" "Of course he does. He's best friends with my dog." "Oh, okay. Makes sense."
"There is popcorn on my apricot tree."
"I had a blue zebra once. It was tied to a tree."
"Hey Toni! I got smacked in the ball with a knee! Wait... I mean..."
"How are you feeling?" "Fly. Like a G6."
"Sorry, I'm peeing. What's up?"
"When you walk into the kitchen and the drawers are open, do you close them or pelvic thrust them?"
"I'm only hugging you cause we're in public." "I hate you." "I hate you too."
"Girl pants have strange sizes. 9/10? Are they in fractions to make the girls feel skinnier?"
Okay, so I think it's about time I started posting something of substance.
I suppose my brain converted to summer mode REALLY quickly, making it difficult to write something.. or ANYTHING. It seems I just get too distracted before I can actually finish a piece of writing.. Heck, I can't even complete a text message! (I think I'm at a grand total of having sent 10 texts today, 3/4 of them being within the last hour.)
So.. Adventures!
I've been on lots lately, and it seems that as soon as I'm finished with one, I'm ready to set out on another one. No time for blogging and informing my readers (all six of you) what's going on in my life.
Today was a lovely, wake up at 4:30 am kind of morning. I took Cydney to work and was astounded by the beauty of Vegas as the sun comes up. The temperature was incredible and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive to the Air Force Base despite the fact that my eyeballs were burning from lack of decent sleep.
After dropping her off, I returned to my couch and fell asleep for several more hours before waking up to sing at the top of my lungs and dance around my house in my underwear while getting ready for work. There's nothing quite like having the house to yourself for the day.
I was pretty proud of myself that I made it there to clock in RIGHT on time. Not early, not late. Perfectly on time with a complete uniform. (Everything except the socks. They're supposed to be black. One of mine was pink, one was blue)
Usually I manage to forget part of my uniform. Either it's the hat, the belt, or the name tag. Today, I had it all. This was rather lucky since the big boss came in to my work. I mean the BIG boss. The one that's over all the Del Tacos in my area. It was pure chaos in it's most satisfyingly de-stressing state. I loved it.
After work, I went home and relaxed. My only human contact was a call to Redbox to report that my movie wasn't playing. I ended up with three free rentals.
I took a shower and called up Houston to head off to a party with me. When we got there, everyone seemed to be in a post-graduation slump. They were just sitting there. Houston and I left to walmart to figure out our new agenda for the night.
We spent a few minutes deciding which air-freshener to get for my car to make it smell good. I couldn't decide between a vanilla or a Hawaiian breeze flavor, so I just got black ice trees. If you haven't smelled them, they're fantastic. Real men wear Air Freshener Trees around their necks. (not really, but hey.)
We ended up with a couple of bottles of Pepsi and rented something from redbox before heading out to the car.
On the way home, we spotted A&W and decided to stop for a rootbeer float. I got a pirate hat.
The movie - it's kind of a funny story was pretty dang good. If you're into cute, quirky, indie movie types, you'll love it. You'll probably love it anyways.
The night ended with watching a few video clips of my little brother pre-puberty. There's nothing quite like listening to a voice that was often confused with mine in the past and comparing it to his current "manly" voice. It made me giggle.
This summer, I've decided that my goal is to sleep somewhere different every night. Cydney said that she might find this to be a questionable goal if I weren't so Mormon, but seeing as I'm LDS (and innocent), it's acceptable.
Now, so far it's been easy. I'm house sitting, and finding strange places to sleep around their house isn't a difficult task.
1 - My bed 2 - Wasson's couch 3 - Wasson's other couch 4 - Trampoline 5 - Hammock 6 - Wasson's OTHER couch
I think this could get harder as it progresses, but we'll see. I might have to get creative.
In order to refrain from shouting obscene things at early hours of the morning, I suggest you familliarilze yourself with someone's sprinkler system schedule BEFORE making the decision to sleep out in their backyard.
When I went over to the Brooks' house last night, I didn't realize it was going to be the last time I'd see Daniel for two years. When I DID realize this, I attacked him with a big bear hug. And another one. And another one..
The wonderfully mean Elder Daniel Greenland entered the MTC today. I'm sure that he's going to have many incredible spiritual experiences, and I can't wait to hear about them.
We MIGHT hate eachother, but I still love that dumb kid.
Beautiful, I watch you try
To see yourself through others' eyes
The mirrors are a losing game
They only show you backwards anyway
The magic and the misery
Come and go so easily
But everything you'll ever be
You already are to me
You were only five years old
Playing princess in your mother's clothes
Could you feel me standing next to you
With my plastic sword and playground shoes
Saying "if my dear I'm wrong somehow,
May dragons come and fail me now."
Because everything you'll ever be
You already are to me
Why
I don't know why
I don't know why you think you need to do it
How
I don't know how
I don't know how but
I just sit back and I see my way right through it
When the memories are ten feet tall
Throwing shadows on your bedroom wall
When you pull the shades and kill the lights
Will you hear me singing out tonight?
Will you hear me singing out tonight?
Days are long and words are cruel
They won't get the best of you
Cause everything you'll ever be
You have always been to me, yeah yeah
Always been to me, yeah, yeah
Always been to me, yeah
Always, oh oh
Always been to me, yeah, yeah
Always been to me
It was a pretty good night. Hilary and Julie were working the store with me, and we were having fun catching up as we took orders.
As I went to hand a drink out the window, Julie and I both tried to turn at the same time. This didn't work very well, so we ended up body slamming right in front of the drive-thru window. It wasn't so much the accidental body slamming that was humorous... it was the look on the customer's face as he watched this unfold through the window. I've NEVER seen someone's eyes get that wide before.
Later, as I was taking an order, my phone started vibrating in my pocket. It scared me, and I'm pretty sure my random sudden spasm might have concerned the customer a little bit.
Later, when I had a chance to check it, I saw that Leslie Greenland had called me. Her son, Jacob, could officially go to six flags, meaning that I had a ride buddy!
I celebrated by driving over to Marble Slab on my break. Jacob attacked me with a hug, and then had to return to working. I wandered over to Jamba Juice while he did his job.
I waited awkwardly at Marble slab for it to clear out so that I could talk to Jacob. His coworkers looked at me funny before disappearing into the back room. Jacob came back out and gave me another hug just in time for his coworkers to walk out and exclaim, "Oh! You guys are friends! We were just talking about how weird it was that the Del Taco girl wasn't ordering anything!" Not awkward at all.
I headed back to work, and Julie had to leave. We bid her farewell and went along with our jobs.
As the clock ticked closer and closer to the time when I get off, Patsy started doing close out.
Here's the part in the story where it starts getting interesting.
(this is the music that I imagine in my head as I replay this in slow motion you can go ahead and play it as you read on.)
The soda started coming out of the soda in a way that was less carbonated than most times. The way our machines work, all of the soda is connected to the same Co2 container, meaning that if one's flat, they're all flat. Flat soda is disgusting.
So, in order to keep our customers happy, we ventured to the back of the store to change the Co2 (we being Hilary. I don't know how to do these things.) It takes a while to get the carbonation through the tubes from the back of the store to the front, so I did exactly what I had seen Bud, my boss, do a thousand times. I clicked all the buttons and let the soda run for a few minutes.
They were still coming out flat.
So I clicked them again, enjoying the view of all the flat sodas running at once.
They all flowed majestically into the drain.
All of a sudden, one of them made a sound like a sneeze, and was suddenly pouring out carbonated soda. I cheered as they all sneezed and started working.
So friends, tell me, why is it so hard to fill your soda cup all the way to the top when you first fill it? It's the bubbles or the fizz, right?
As the sodas all poured out large amounts of liquids, they all began to fizz and bubble. I watched, unbelieving, as the drinks went from their normal liquid size to their fizzy size, growing like a monster before my eyes. The little drain was overloaded and forced all of the fizzy liquids to overflow onto everything.
The sprite poured sparkly and clear as it madeit's way down to the ground,
the coke filled up the ice handle with it's fizzy brown goodness. The soda's all danced together, seeming to multiply as they all pooled in the drain, a big, mixed, sticky concoction.
Frozen, all I could do was watch as the sodas splashed down the soda machine, around the sink, and across the floor of the entire drive thru section of del taco.
While I was running some errands today, Cydney texted me asking if I wanted to go on a library adventure with her. I agreed that it might be fun, and arrived at her house to pick her up. We then proceeded to get distracted in any and every way possible.
Among the things that were accomplished, these were some of them:
- Cake pops were dipped - 20 dollars was made - nine year old's butt got whooped in a video game - Toni decided she wants a yellow parakeet - Discovered that Michael's craft store is empty and chaotic because it's moving - Found an interesting book in the non-fiction section - Got stuck in the Del Taco parking lot thanks to a semi truck - Created wedding playlist while sitting in the Del Taco parking lot - Stalked my hater's younger brother - Ate ice cream - Talked - Laughed - Planned a Party - Talked more - Laughed more
Overall, today was lovely. I should have taken pictures.
