Yesterday while driving back from Tahoe, Brad thought that he smelled propane and rolled down the (automatic) window. When he tried to roll it back up, the window fell off the track and got stuck five inches from the top. (That's what she said... and also, this seems to be a recurring issue, it's the third time it's happened.) So we were still in the mountains and the window wouldn't shut and it was snowing and raining on us. Apparently, if the window is down it gets much colder in the passenger seat than it does for the driver.

We stopped at In-N-Out and I was paranoid the whole time that someone would just reach in the broken window, unlock the car and steal all my stuff. No one tried to though.

A few years ago, my car got broken into (well not quite, more like, apparently I forgot to lock the car) and someone went through all my stuff, ripped open bags that I had in the trunk, stole my Coach wristlet and checkbook, but left all my CDs. I take it as a sign that my taste in music sucks.

I got the window fixed today, and it cost $80, which isn't too bad but at the same time only took my mechanic guy 45 minutes to fix. Eh. He asked if I used my window a lot and I just said, "yeah" but I wish I had a quick enough sense of humor to say something like, "OMG thanks for fixing my window I wasn't sure how I was going to eat otherwise."

To help set my window track back in the right position, I wasn't supposed to use it for 24 hours (that's what she said). Since I couldn't trust myself to remember NOT to use it, I taped up the button that controls the window.

So tonight Brad and I went to the Lady Gaga concert, and while in San Francisco some guy on the street held up a sign to ask for change. I had some random loose change in my car so I scooped it up to give to the guy, and almost opened my window to do so when I remembered that I wasn't supposed to open the window. I had to open my door while waiting for a stoplight just to give a guy some change.

If I had to rate the Gaga concert, honestly I'd only give it 3 stars out of five.

My gripes:
The venue wasn't the best... Bathroom line was ridiculous. I could see ok from the floor while standing further back (the whole venue was general admission), except that as soon as you open up a space people step directly in front of you, and then you can't see at all. Three songs in, I moved to the upper deck and resorted to standing in a stairwell. This is out of Gaga's control, I know.

She took the stage at about 9:20 (ticket says the show starts at 7:30), 40 minutes after Kid Cudi left the stage. Way too long of a break. I thought she'd start at 9:00, but they kept playing filler song after filler song. (Mostly Miley Cyrus and Michael Jackson.)

There's no way to see the entire stage unless you are 1) really close on the floor or 2) perfectly centered in the upper deck. The stage was designed way too deep and narrow (that's what she said), so if you are on either side of the stage you only see 1/2 of of what's going on (assuming you have a clear view of the stage at all), and you miss all of her entrances because she comes out from the back half of the stage.

The show was probably designed for a hardcore fan. I didn't catch most of the inside jokes. I also didn't really care that much for the songs that weren't singles. Brad agreed that many of her songs weren't that memorable.

Gaga is actually fairly normal on stage. She seems much stranger in her videos and pictures.

Pros:
The best songs were Paparazzi, Alejandro & Bad Romance. Honorable mentions to Love Game, Poker Face, Dancing in the Dark (the opening song) and Eh Eh Nothing Else I Can Say. Those were worth the price of admission.

Also, she sang live, and was did seem really sweet, and kept saying "HI SF" and thanked us for coming.

I'd be open to seeing her again, but a stronger set list would probably help. The theatrics were cool but not enough to float an entire show/make up for where the music lacked. Plus sadly, I was expecting more. The dancers were ok, but I was expecting some crazy Cirque Du Soleil contortionist stuff, or some gymnasts, or SOMETHING. I didn't see any scary monsters, or any ball gowns for that matter, and I read a rumor somewhere that Lady Gaga hatches out of an egg with a giant beak and a bird costume but that didn't happen either.

Ok it's bedtime. I'll try to write more.

But dear... you ARE a frog!!

Things I learned about Boston

1) Parking prices are comparable to SF prices, but at least it's easier to get parking.
2) Public restrooms mostly don't offer toilet liners, but the bathrooms there all seem cleaner for some reason.
3) Boston is a lot like California - we ate at the Cheesecake Factory, there was Quzinos, Target, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Burger King, IHOP, Barnes and Noble, American Eagle, Abercombie, Hollister, Macy's, Urban Outfitters, ect. ect.
4) People in Boston really really really like Dunkin Donuts. There's literally one every 300 feet.
5) Very few people actually speak with a Boston accent, but... some do.
6) That "5 corners" (5 way stop lights) exist and that there are lots of them.
7) Two lane streets merge into 1-lane streets without warning
8) That multiple people can share one train ticket... strange... can you imagine 4 people sharing a BART ticket? Apparently they don't check tickets when you leave the station.
9) However, parking at train stations is very expensive! What if we had to pay $7 to park at the Fremont BART station?
10) To ease traffic, the city of Boston spent 15 million dollars and 15 years to dig a giant tunnel beneath the city. Now there's a huge garden through the middle of Boston.
11) People are VERY aggressive drivers, much worse than in CA. Not only will people cut you off without warning, they'll come to random dead stops in the middle of the road, make illegal u-turns in the middle of the road, run red lights, not stop at a right-turn red light, not allow me right-of-way when they have a stop sign, not let people in, block intersections so other people can't make turns, drift into your lane AND take up two parking spots.
12) Clam chowder is offered at Red Sox games, and the seats at Fenway look like they are about 300 years old.
13) That if you walk into a restaurant at 10:58 and they close at 11 (according to the sign on the door), they'll actually be closed but not tell you they are closed until you try and order.
14) That you probably shouldn't place bets on rain if the forecast says "light showers very likely" but you show up to the game prepared with ponchos (and tickets that actually place you under the roof anyway...)
15) There's Panera Bread in Boston?!
16) But there isn't Jamba Juice, Carl's Jr. OR In-N-Out (that much I already knew).
17) People don't really have lawns in the suburbs of Boston, at least not in the same way people in California have lawns. Grass is very hard to take care of in places where it snows, or so I hear.
18) People actually wear flip flops, and in fact, the Journey store had an entire display of Rainbows.
19) Non-Asians in the suburbs of Boston don't know what Asian-style tapioca (aka, bubble tea, boba) is, and claim it tastes like licorice.
20) A box of mochi ice cream costs $6!!! It's $3 in CA.

It's both easy and extremely difficult to kill 6 hours. Sleep would be the natural choice, but there are definately times when sleep just isn't quite an option.

If I could, I would only ever do redeye flights. I'm 25 minutes from San Francisco, which means I was sucessful in my quest to kill 5 1/2 hours. Surpringly I am not even all that miserable. I'm now pecking out this entry on my phone, which is turned on to airplane mode. I do wonder what would happen if I turn the 3G on though. I would not make the airplane crash, right? Would I even get reception? I know some people involved with 9-11 were able to send texts out. Well I'm not about to find out what will happen if I turn airplane mode off.

So I just spent 5 days in the Boston area hanging out with my best childhood friend and 5 other people formerlly only known to me through the Internet. Well, with the exception of Tony, who I met last summer for a few hours, and who claims he can type faster on his blackberry than I can on this iPhone. The iPhone is totally much faster... I dont have to click a button to get my letters out. Although the auto spellchecker just changed button to "butt." hahaha.

I didn't want to get headphones because I didn't really feel like watching Yes Man, which was the first in flight movie that was shown. I have already seen that movie. However I did reget that decision cuz the second movie was 4 Christmases, which I have not seen before.

Instead, I killed time by first reading the last two volumes of Watchmen, and then by filling out postcards that I had intended to send out while actually in Boston but never got around to doing so. I tried to write as small as humanly possible, to take as long as I could. Really though, a postcard is a tiny amount of space, and it's impossible to write anything of importance on a postcard.

Hey now I am checking in from BART. I had more to say while I was still on the plane, but alas they made us turn our phones off. Anyway, I spent another hour by reading SkyMall. Allie is right; it's filled with the most amaingly useless things ever. If I ever need stainless steel wallet, or a bound copy of the NYT from any date of my choosing, or a silk sleeper bag that folds up to the size of a paperback book (which is probably the item I'd most likely to buy), or shoes that will deceptively make me two inches taller, or if I ever need to purchase a 5 page summary of the most important books I will never read, I know exactly where to look. Of course, there WERE a few items that seemed actually completely useful, like solar powered lawn lights. I know Brad had to do wiring in his backyard and some of the lights burned out already. Solar power seems like a logical choice plus you don't have to pay for electricity.

I spent my last two hours on the plane reading a borrowed copy of Esquire, which was by far not as good of a time waster as, say, Maxim or Cosmo. The articles were rather long to digest on a plane, and too artsy to comprehend on a short attention span. I read lists on who Esquire has determined as a "real man" and everyday items any real man should have. "$1000 in cash stowed away, because $500 is too little and $2000 is too much." I also found out that men should not buy clothing for women and that real men put dying animls out of their misery and that it is important to always have style while knowing how to BBQ and cook an egg 4 different ways.

There was like 8 full pages on Todd Palin but the best article by far was the story of a former 1st round football draft who fell from grace after a severe drug addiction.

I have a severe headache, I think it's just motion sickness catching up to me, so now I am lying down over a few seats on BART. BART police walked past me and didn't tell me to sit up so I assume this is ok. I am glad I have a blanket with me, these seats are disgusting. I will definatly need to wash this when I get home.

Dammit, I just realized my Coach carry on was banging against the metal railing and now there are a bunch of stratches in the handle. My Balenciaga just fell to the floor as well. Maybe I am just not meant to have nice things. Sooner or later, no matter how much I baby an item when I first get it, I just give up and let things get worn. I guess there is also the school of thought that says things are simply just that... Things... And they should be used.

Ugh I just had to transfer trains and now I'm in Oakland by myself I am going to get shot. My friend Joy was probably right when she said she didn't want to go to Oakland by herself and I gave her a hard time for it.
I also just got asked for change... Not gonna say no, plz i wanna live!!! Maybe I should have gotten someone to pick me up :( :(

Ok it's probably time to put this phone away but I'm just gonna add one more thing... On the plane, right in front of me, there was a rather large woman who sat half into the asile and had to keep her other armrest up to accomodate. I thought of Brian instantly, and the questio he posed about charging for 2 seats.

Gorgeous night in California, it's probably still 65 degrees out here. Excited for summer :)

Sorry my east coast friends, but I think California wins for now (minus the possibly dying part) - sun, surf, snow, shopping, In-N-Out, what more could a girl ask for? And look I made it onto my transfer train, still alive.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Just saw Britney herself in San Jose!



( Britney in... Sacramento? No, SAN JOSE! )

[00:39] angelhalo1001: guys guys i have a story
[00:39] [Chat]: (daintyrubbish) uh huh?
[00:39] angelhalo1001: so brad and i went to a late dinner
[00:39] angelhalo1001: on our way back, close to my house we see a bunch of police lights and we're like, wtf happened
[00:40] angelhalo1001: when we drove closer we saw that a blue truck had gotten into an accident, the front end was all smashed in
[00:40] angelhalo1001: and i was like, "oh that sucks, i wonder what he ran into?"
[00:40] angelhalo1001: and i looked around at all the lightposts but they all looked fine
[00:40] angelhalo1001: anyway we drive like a few more lights down, and turn in on my street
[00:41] angelhalo1001: and there's a bunch of police cars too, and people standing on the side of the road, and a few cars that looked like they got into an accident
[00:41] angelhalo1001: and i was like, "what happened here? brad let me get out so i can ask what happened, what if there's a robber on the street or something?"
[00:41] angelhalo1001: and brad's like, "you don't want to distract them they look busy."
[00:41] angelhalo1001: so we drive down my street, get to the end of the street where i live
[00:41] angelhalo1001: and there's MORE police cars
[00:41] angelhalo1001: and we're like, "ok this IS really strange what happened?"
[00:41] [Chat]: (daintyrubbish) this does not bode well
[00:42] angelhalo1001: and on the left side of the road, there's this car that looked obviously damaged
[00:42] angelhalo1001: so brad parked on my driveway, and we get out and talk to the guy with the damaged car (a nissan 350z - nice car)
[00:42] angelhalo1001: and what happened, was that a drunk driver came down the street perpendicular to my street
[00:43] angelhalo1001: crashed into the owner of the nissan
[00:43] angelhalo1001: then drove through the fence of my neighbor's house (two houses down, on the same side of the street)
[00:43] [Chat]: (extemporization) lol.....
[00:43] [Chat]: (thaumatropes) wtf
[00:43] [Chat]: (daintyrubbish) quite the path of destruction
[00:43] angelhalo1001: hit two of the three cars parked on their driveway, doing significant damage to the back half of their cars
[00:43] angelhalo1001: reversed down the street
[00:44] angelhalo1001: would have most likely hit brad's car had we not been at dinner
[00:44] angelhalo1001: took off down my street
[00:44] angelhalo1001: hit more cars at the end of the street
[00:44] [Chat]: (thaumatropes) whoa
[00:44] [Chat]: (thaumatropes) jesus
[00:44] angelhalo1001: and finally hit a van - where he stopped
[00:44] [Chat]: (mystelemental) "ten sounds like a good number, let's stop here"
[00:44] [Chat]: (daintyrubbish) lol
[00:44] angelhalo1001: his truck happened to be the first thing that we passed on our way back to my house
[00:45] [Chat]: (extemporization) that's some stupor

ps:
[00:48] [Chat]: (thaumatropes) this'll make a great LJ entry!

pps:
No one was injured - cuz then this story would suck.

I am on a mission to save the economy... or at least, keep UPS in business. I just ordered my 3rd snowboard in one week except that two of them have to be sent back (and I'm not sure what I'm keeping yet) but man is it fun to buy stuff over the internet at 1 am or what?

I was browsing the internet when this name popped into my head... I realized it was a friend of mine from the 4th grade. I went to the very back of my closet, and knocking over my Snapple cap collection in the process, I managed to dig out a box of old letters. I had letters from many of the chattys saved here (Allie, Jeff, Tony, James, Brian2), notes from high school and middle school, and letters from a Caitlin in Nebraska. So I tracked her down on Facebook and added her as a friend. Then just for good measure I tracked down a few other old, old friends and added them too.

Re-reading these letters makes me realize how terrible I am at being a friend. I have all these letters from people I must have been once close with (notes from early HS and middle school), but now barely remember. I have letters from internet pen pals back in the Ragnrok days - we used to exchange letters weekly - but I haven't spoken to them in years. Maybe I did move a lot but I wasn't able to keep in touch with as many people as I wish I did.

Facebook is a sad reminder about how we can take friends for granted because they are always just a click away.

Aaron: My daughter can live off bread and cheese. For example, last Monday I asked what she wanted for dinner.
Daughter: Pizza?
Aaron: So I got her pizza. On Tuesday I asked what she wanted for dinner.
Daughter: Pizza?
Aaron: No I got you pizza yesterday. Try something else.
Daughter: Ok... quesadillas then.
Aaron: So I got her a quesadilla. On Wednesday, I asked what she wanted for dinner.
Daughter: Quesadillas?
Aaron: No I got you a quesadilla yeseterday. Try something else.

The daughter thought very hard...
Daughter Grilled cheese?

Brad and I decided to go snowboarding again, because Sierra sent me a coupon for $65/2 days (including rentals and a lesson), and the second day can be any day until the end of the season. Great deal.

On Saturday, we drove up to Sacramento to spend the night at his friend's house. We stopped in Vacaville on the way up because I wanted to get fudge and shop at the outlets.

- Brad, who doesn't actually own any keys as his car doesn't use a key and he punches a code to get into his house, left my keys in the ignition and locked them in the car. However, we called AAA and fixed this problem in about 20 minutes. It also didn't cost a thing (minus the AAA membership, I guess.) How is that for efficiency?

So eventually we made it to his friend's house. We played Halo 3 for a bit, where I got killed about 300 times and only managed to notch two kills, one of which was because I accidentally shot Brad.

Then we played Mario Kart, and I came in second place! (I came in 11/12 in the second round so I promptly quit.)

- OMG I just spilled an entire baby box of rice krispies all over myself!!

Anyway, later that night we went to a "western" club where everyone line dances... strange cuz everyone there knew all the moves. Where do you learn how to line dance in CA?

The next morning Brad and I met up with his friends (another Brad, and Cierra) and we drove to Sierra (don't get confused).

- While getting my equipment, someone was like, "HEY, didn't you go to Santa Cruz?" and I tried for like 5 minutes to recognize her when I realized that I had actually lived with her my last year in college. Yeah that's pretty bad right, you live with someone for a few months in a 4-person apartment and still forget who they are! Just running into her was a pretty big coincidence.

- On her first run, someone crashed into Cierra and she broke her wrist in two places.

- My mom called and was like, "Hey where are you, and did you come home last night?" and I was like, "MOM I TOLD YOU I WAS GOING TO TAHOE," and she's like, "WHAT YOU WENT WHERE?" and I was like, "I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER I'M SITTING ON A PILE OF SNOW."

- The snow was packed and I fell a lot and it hurt! Ow!

As we had gone to Tahoe with (other) Brad and Cierra, we had to leave with Brad's brother Brian, his fiance Fiona, and her sister Gillian, as Brad and Cierra left early after her broken wrist. The five of us piled in one car, and then had to stack Brad and Brian's snowboards on top of us, with half of them sticking out the window, as there was no place to go. Then it got cold in the car because we had to drive with the window down.

Brad and I got back to his friend JD's house, and we watched the second half of the SuperBowl. With 3 minutes and 54 seconds remaining (I remember this because I was like, "Yeah I'm going to sleep, because there are 3 minutes left in the game," and one guy was like, angrily, "NO THERE ARE 4 MINUTES LEFT IN THE GAME,") I decided I was tired and my head hurt so I went to take a nap.

- During my nap, in the last "4" minutes of the game Arizona scored and went on top 23-20, and it looked like they were going to win in an upset, and then Pittsburgh somehow scored again to claim back the lead, and they won the SuperBowl. I always miss all the good SuperBowl moments, like the "wardrobe malfunction", and the good upsets... Every SuperBowl game I watch always seems so boring :(

Then Brad took me to Sierra Snowboard and Ski, the store not the mountain, and I bought snowboard pants, so now I can look cute and not frumpy in borrowed clothing!!

2 days before Christmas...

My brother asked for a yoyo for Christmas. He does all these cool tricks on a dinky plastic yoyo so he wanted a nicer one. Lily was supposed to get him a yoyo, but she didn't. I went to Target and Borders and tried to find a yoyo, but neither place had one.

Me: I can't find a yoyo anywhere! Christmas is ruined!
Brad: You know, I might know someone with a yoyo.
Me: Orly, I might know someone with a yoyo too.
Brad: No seriously, I know someone who used to like, do a ton of yoyo tricks and stuff, here let me call him...

To make a long story short, because I could spend 30 minutes re-telling this story, Brad's friend Jer used to enter yoyo competitions or something and his dad used to sell competition yoyos... Jer found some unsold, still boxed yoyos that retail for like $50 each, and sold one to me at cost ($20), and effectively saved Christmas. Now if I ever need another yoyo, I know who to call.

On-ward ho...

Christmas Day

I woke up at the ungodly (no pun intended I promise) hour of like, 8 a.m., and dragged my butt over to Brad's for present unwrapping. The moment I started driving over, it started hailing. No, seriously. The moment I pulled out of the driveway, hail came out of the sky. Guess we got a white Christmas after all.


Here's a picture of Brad's car with hail.


Then I had to go home to unwrap presents under my own tree. And yes, someone did actually get me Sun Chips for Christmas. I <3 Sun Chips, almost as much as I <3 Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar, hint hint, if anyone is reading this.


Isn't it cute! It's just over 2 feet tall.


Later on, I went back to Brad's house for Christmas dinner. His dad is like, the best cook ever, and can make anything under the sun, and probably has all the ingredients, kitchen utensils, rare spices, and recipes to do so. Here, we are eating a Most Delicious salmon salad with ginger vinaigrette dressing.


Brian, Jeff, JD and Brad. All the adults are at a separate table.


( Best of all, see what Brad got me for Christmas! )

Today my friend Jeanette came by to visit. It was good to see her because her family moved an hour away after she graduated from high school. We decided to go to the mall, which wasn't really the best idea when it's the last weekend before Christmas.

As luck would have it, we got a really great parking spot immediately. A family happened to walk up to a van by the first lane I turned into, so I waved and took their spot.

We went to lunch at Fresh Choice. It was pretty good. I tried to go to the bathroom at Fresh Choice, but there was a line of about 5 people. So I decided I could hold it and go later.

Bad choice...

30 minutes later I decided I really did need to go. The bathroom next to Off 5th was probably at least 10-15 deep out the door, so I figured I'd go to the single-stall bathrooms within Marshall's. When I got there, I saw that there were only six people in front of me for the women's stall.

Since there were no men waiting in line, women started going into the men's stalls. I happened to be standing directly in front of the men's stall, so when someone walked out I asked the people ahead of me in line if someone was willing to go in. Then this ***** behind me cut the line and went in instead, even though the people who had been waiting longer were all willing to use the men's stall.

So now all of us left in the line are all rolling our eyes cuz someone had the audacity to cut in line. When that woman walked out, several men started queuing up so we could no longer use the men's stall anyway.

To make long story short (I told this story to Brad and he said it took longer to tell than the actual time I was in line), I was in the line for a total of 25 minutes, 7-8 minutes of which were taken up by two siblings (maybe age 4-5 and 16 - assuming the older girl wasn't actually the mother) giggling in the stall. They finally came out, the girl in front of me went in, and my turn was next.

Then the girl right in front of comes out and says, "Um you might not want to go in because the toilet backed up and the water is overflowing."

[10:53] Melody: everyone should be anti-prop 8
[10:53] Melody: i got in a fight with my mother this morning!
[10:53] Melody: but i think she finally voted no in the end
[11:01] Jing: ......
[11:01] Jing: oh man your mother was yes?
[11:01] Jing: ok help me
[11:01] Jing: my mother i think is yes.
[11:01] Jing: she actually said to me
[11:01] Jing: "if men marry men and women marry women then who will have kids?"
[11:01] Melody: so i was supposed to like
[11:01] Melody: take her to
[11:02] Melody: the voting place
[11:02] Melody: and she said
[11:02] Melody: "i'm voting yes on 8"
[11:02] Melody: so i said
[11:02] Melody: "i'm not taking you to the voting place"
[11:02] Melody: so i left
[11:02] Melody: without her
[11:02] Jing: LOL.
[11:02] Melody: and she made it there anyway. but then she called me and said, "i voted no are you HAPPY NOW"

[23:43] angelhalo1001: http://www.revolveclothing.com/b/Product.jsp?code=BAIL-WS161&refererUrl=%2Fbrandpages%2FBailey44.jsp
[23:44] [Chat]: (mystelemental) no
[23:44] angelhalo1001: no?
[23:45] [Chat]: (mystelemental) it's ugly
[23:45] [Chat]: (epilogueinink) Meh. It had potential, but something's off about it.
[23:45] [Chat]: (extemporization) not worth $61 even with potential
[23:45] angelhalo1001: i have a 50% off coupon
[23:45] angelhalo1001: i'm trying to use
[23:45] [Chat]: (epilogueinink) Yeah. I'm not sure I like the spaghetti strap
[23:45] [Chat]: (epilogueinink) Don't use it on that.
[23:46] angelhalo1001: i can use it up to $300
[23:46] [Chat]: (epilogueinink) Do not. Use it. On that.
[23:46] angelhalo1001: i don't think i like the strap either. i might remove it
[23:46] [Chat]: (mystelemental) it'd still be ugly
[23:46] [Chat]: (shutupwenchbug) come visit
[23:46] [Chat]: (mystelemental) bring me with you
[23:46] angelhalo1001: http://www.revolveclothing.com/b/Product.jsp?code=VELVET-WO90&refererUrl=%2Fb%2FWishList.jsp%3Femail%3Dangelfatal%40gmail.com%26t%3D239859%26u%3D2513
[23:46] [Chat]: (mystelemental) no
[23:47] angelhalo1001: http://www.revolveclothing.com/b/Product.jsp?code=SPLENDID-WO143&refererUrl=%2Fb%2FBrands.jsp%3Fc%3DSweaters%2B%2526%2BKnits%26s%3DC
[23:47] [Chat]: (mystelemental) no
[23:47] angelhalo1001: http://www.revolveclothing.com/b/Product.jsp?code=ZOOE-WS397&refererUrl=%2Fb%2FBrands.jsp%3Fc%3DTops%2B-%2BCasual%26s%3DC%26sc%3DLong%2BSleeve
[23:47] [Chat]: (mystelemental) this store should be revolting clothing

So I bought this bag from Nordstrom:

I'm walking around modeling the bag, and then my friend Chris says, "That bag is huge, you can fit a small child in it."

And I said, "Really, is it too big?"

And he said, "If I saw a girl walking down the street carrying that bag, I would point it out and laugh. Since I know you... I would laugh even harder."

My parents have been following the Olympics closely. They did not miss a single Michael Phelps race, and we're all super into gymnastics. We were watching the women's floor exercise final yesterday, and my parents were pulling for Shawn Johnson to finally win a gold medal. My mom likes her especially because my mom's name is also Shawn. They call her the "little jumping bean."

Anyway, Shawn ended up with her 3rd silver medal of the Olympics.

Dad: No one wants to win silver or bronze. Everyone wants the gold medal. Did you hear about that one guy who refused his bronze medal? He just tossed it on the ground! He's SO COOL.
Mom: What sport was that?
Dad: Wrestling, I think.
Mom: Oh wrestling? He should have just knocked the judges to the floor and wrestled them...

[15:55] Melody: OMFG
[15:55] Melody: WHERE ARE YOU
[15:55] Melody: I JUST HAD THE WEIRDEST STORY
[15:59] Cathy: uh?
[15:59] Cathy: what?
[15:59] Melody: okay
[15:59] Melody: so i'm talking to my internet friends
[15:59] Melody: and we're talking about old crushes
[15:59] Melody: and so i mentioned this guy, jake, that i had a crush on
[15:59] Melody: in middle school
[15:59] Melody: when i was 11, right?
[15:59] Melody: i had such a big crush on him
[16:00] Cathy: uh huh
[16:00] Melody: anyway, i was like, i wonder what ever happened to him
[16:00] Melody: so i google searched him
[16:00] Melody: AND HE'S GETTING MARRIED.
[16:00] Cathy: hahahaha
[16:00] Melody: and here's the kicker - he's getting married... no other day, but TODAY
[16:00] Cathy: HAHAHAHA
[16:00] Melody: TODAY!!
[16:00] Melody: TODAY TODAY

My brother Brian turned 10 last week. My mom got him an awesome chocolate ice cream cake from Coldstone. She also bought some of those giant numeral candles with a "1" and a "0" for 10, and some small party candles too.

Well my mom ended using the "1" and the "0" candles but not the smaller party ones. It's my co-worker Elena's birthday today (well tomorrow actually) so I just baked her a brownie. I asked my mom if I could take her pack of small party candles so we could use them on her brownie.

My mom said that was okay, but then I looked down and saw that there were only 24 candles in the pack! Oh no, it's Elena's 25th birthday!

So I thought, hmm maybe I'll just grab the "1" candle too so her brownie will have a giant "1" surrounded by lots of smaller candles. That way, Elena can be #1, and her brownie/cake will still have 25 candles total.

I asked my mom if I could take the "1" candle and my mom said, "Yes you can, but be sure to bring it back. That candle was a whole dollar. Then we can reuse use the candle for your brother's 11th birthday, and 12th, and 13th, because they all start with '1'."