17 Days of Roommates

Andrew's mother makes the most incredible chocolate sauce this world has ever tasted and she let me bring some home and I bought some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream to eat it with and when i went to the fridge and pulled out the said deliciousness and looked inside that tupperware i saw something terrible.....

roommate ate it.

Homework

Andrew has been working on a research paper all week and he still has a long way to go...
He works pretty hard but every once in a while he needs a little break.
So, naturally, he just took a second to softly kiss and caress his bicep, and then humbly declared, "I may fail this paper, but at least I'll have big biceps."
Too good.

So, one of the things I do to help Reed is get him ready for bed. This process usually includes brushing his teeth, washing his face, helping him go to the bathroom and getting him a drink (all of this is done while I tell him some sort of bedtime story that he generally sleeps through because I’m annoying). Next, I tuck him in and turn off the lights.

Then, at 2:56 in the morning I make my way up the stairs and completely crash on my bed. And then do you know what I do? I think to myself,

“Crap”

Do you know why? Because that is the moment when I remember that I still have to brush my teeth, wash my face, go to the bathroom and get a drink. And that moment is the worst moment of my whole day. Seriously. (I know, I know-I have a really hard life)

All I’m saying is that sometimes I think that Reed is living the dream.

I have got to get myself a personal care attendant.

I've been feeling a little bit eugghhish lately. I feel like my emotions sort of remind me of runny eggs. I don't even know what that means but I suppose that would be my excuse for the lack of interesting posts as of late.

 In fact, I still have nothing of real interest to say so I thought I would simply inform you that a long while back a read a book. A really great book. The Secret Life of Bees. Read it because you will like it! It didn't exactly get me branching out in the reading area but my mom suggested it and she only suggests really good books so I read it and it was wonderful. I'm currently working on Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. I'm having a hard time focusing on it (that reminds me--it's due tomorrow. Shows you how much effort I've put into reading it) but he makes a lot of good points and I feel like there is a lot of truth to what he has to say. So, read on. 

Maybe when I feel like I can put my feelings into words besides "eugghh" and "runny eggs", I'll get back to you. To keep you satisfied, please enjoy these pictures of Reed on his 33rd birthday! That old man... Gotta love him. 

I got him that awesome shirt with his favorite quote on it.

All of those animals sing... I promise, it's not as creepy as it looks.

WHY? Have I never had an Edible Arrangement before today?? Incredible. 

A Story for Your Soul

Would you like to hear the pathetic story of the century? Ok, I'll tell you.

Two days ago Reed's nurse gave Reed a big pile of tiny bags of chips. I love chips. I love them. Reed is really a nice guy and so obviously he was willing to share his chips with me while we were eating our lunch. But later.. when read was asleep I wanted some more chips. I didn't want to wake him up to ask him for more and I knew he wouldn't mind so I just took some. I took the cheesy Doritos because there were still two packets left--so thoughtful.
Well, Reed really likes chips too. When he woke up the first thing he shouted (it wasn't actually a shout but he sounded angry) was "hey! did you eat my bag of chips??"
"NO!" I replied. "It must have been your mom. She didn't get dinner. Are you sure you had another bag? Maybe you're just imagining things..."
It was just like that Brian Regan moment where I could hear the words coming out and my brain was screaming for me to shut up and tell the truth but my mouth just kept moving and there was nothing I could do. Reed was still confused. He has a super brain and he can remember everything perfectly. He knew there was another bag of chips before. He also really likes to be right so he was bound and determined to figure out what happened to the bag of chips. Meanwhile, I was just shutting up in the corner and letting my guilty conscience swallow me up. It was horrible. So horrible that I haven't been able to sleep. I felt so ashamed when I would say my prayers and I had been lying to Reed about the Doritos--those delicious Doritos.
So, last night when I went down to help Reed, I promised myself I would tell him the truth about his precious chips. It was horrible. I was so embarrassed. He just laughed of course. He didn't care about the chips at all. I knew that. I just couldn't get it off my mind! How could someone trust me if I couldn't even be honest about a stupid bag of chips?! So, we're friends now--my conscience and I, I mean. Repentance is a wonderful gift.

Anyway, the main thing that was like "Ahah!" for me was that I finally figured out this quote. "It's easier to keep commandments 100% of the time than it is to keep them 98% of the time" by Elder Christensen. My ward has been really focusing on this lately and I was kind of confused about it. But now I get it. It would just be easier for me to tell Reed that I ate his chips and be honest than be honest about some things and lie about others. 


Curse my parents for teaching me not to lie. (by "curse" I mean "bless" but man, if only I didn't have to have that embarrassing moment)


Moral: Liars get their pants on fire. Amen.

Twinsies!

i guess since it's facebook official, i can finally announce the newcomers to our family. when my sister told me, i felt like i was being punk'd. it was so weird. but i have proof now. i'm a believer. here's some proof for you in case you need it, too.

congrats and good luck to sarah and kenneth!

GOOOO CRIMSON!

i went to the harvard vs. yale football game a couple of weeks ago. it's a long story so i'll just sum it up for you. thank you, MasterCard.

ticket: $44
toll roads: $6
gas: $15
parking: FREE! just wait..
lunch for me and poor college student i just met: $14
pass to ride the T even though i don't know where i'm going: $5
walking around cambridge for an hour: $my frozen fingers and toes
hot chocolate: $2
getting kellie's car back from the towing company: $64

although the day ended up being annoying, what with misplacing a car and all, i'm glad i went. i've never seen so many men in scarves in one arena. do you think that made the day priceless? why yes, yes it did. super weird. but really, i made some friends and overall it was a good time. go crimson!

One Fish, Two Fish

a couple of weeks ago reed and i went to the fish store to get a few new pals for the tank. we got two firefish, three snails, one scooter blenny, and one angel fish. they were so cute and they added so much fun and excitement to the tank! we were nervous at first because adding that many fish can be a little disturbing to the rest of the tank. they get a little petty when someone else comes into their territory. so selfish-mind the pun. but everyone seemed to be doing great! everyone was eating and sharing and playing nicely. but then, tragedy struck. you know that angel fish i was talking about? it had another angel fish friend. one who had been in the tank a long time. well, the two started getting on each other's nerves and one day they both disappeared. we couldn't find them anywhere. we determined they must be behind the rocks somewhere. so every day reed and i would search for them. we looked and looked for probably four days which is a long time for a fish to hide in such a small space. as we were searching reed suggested/demanded i hurry and look in one tiny space. such a silly idea-how could they fit in there? but sure enough, there they were! the more established angel fish was blocking the newcomer fish in this tiny hole so he couldn't get to the food! it's horrible, really. so, we moved some barnacle around and let the fish free. but the hostility didn't end there. for some reason the two of them kept chasing each other around the back and hiding for days. then one day, the new fish emerged from the rocks and he plopped himself down on the barnacle as if he had just used up his last ounce of energy to get there. his fins were all shredded and his coloring was faded and he could barely move. i wanted to cry, it really was quite dramatic. at this point, there still hadn't been any signs of the old angel fish, he just kept hiding back there. i didn't really care because i was rooting for the new fish all along (i picked him out). after a while the new fish made it's way to the back for what i'm assuming was the final battle because today was the day we found the remains of those poor fish floating at the top of the tank.

dead fish, blue fish.

i'm about to burst

sometimes i have millions of things to say and no one to say them to. and then, i have this blog. i could share all of these things with you, but it would be wildly inappropriate.

eh...what is this?

just in case you were headed to monti's any time soon, i thought i'd inform you that in massachusetts, canadian bacon is not canadian bacon. it's simply bacon. bacon that is burnt and crispy and greasy and, at first glance, slightly resembles a slug and is on top of your large, pineapple, extra cheese, was-supposed-to-be-oh-so-delicious pizza. SURPRISE!

don't worry, it's actually better than it looks. i'll forgive you, monti.

spiders, insects and other crawly things belong outside.

i don't have any problems with these critters when they're out where they belong. unfortunately, i live next to the forest and therefore happen to find PLENTY of said creatures in my living space. when i first moved here i would occasionally find a spider in my bathtub. that's not that weird, except it would happen almost every day. that's weird. it's also not uncommon to find an earwig making it's way across the living room floor. a couple of weeks ago, i was coming to my room and i found a giant spider on my door. it's butt was HUGE! and when i squished it with my shoe, it popped and then splattered all over my door. the worst part about smooshing a spider is that you have to clean it up and it's little body parts break under your fingers and you can feel it being all spidery. bleh.

so, here's another little encounter i had: today i was going to put reed's laundry away. i turned the corner to the hallway and what did i find? oh, just your average snake! a SNAKE! right in the middle of the hallway. it was tiny and i wasn't afraid of it. it's just that... a snake in the house.. what? i then proceeded to shoo the little guy out into the garage. i run back to reed's room, still mystified. i'm telling diane and reed what i'd just experienced and diane says "oh, that's nothing. one time i found a skunk in their garage" a skunk! just think about it, people. it's only small spiders and harmless snakes for now, but what's next?! a squirrel? a raccoon? a BEAR?! do you want a bear in your house? good grief. we have got to get this situation under control.

I'm Afraid of the Dark, OK?

i hate to admit it but being in the dark really scares me. i don't think it's the dark so much as the being alone in the dark that scares me. you know how your house has it's own little creeks and grumbles? but you know exactly where each sound comes from and it's not so scary? well i live in a new house with new creeks and grumbles and even sometimes wheezes. and sometimes, when it's nighttime and the house is all dark and i'm the only one awake, i get really scared. the same kind of scared i used to get when i would hurry up the stairs from my basement-positive that someone was following me. i've always been afraid of the dark. my biggest fears are being kidnapped and ghosts. but these fears only come when it's dark and when i'm alone. so i try all sorts of weird things to soothe my troubled mind. when i lived at home i would make sure to fall asleep while my parents t.v. was still on so i could be sure they were still awake. i would always make a point of being in front of them in what i was going to wear to bed because i wanted them to be able to tell the police what i was wearing (what child thinks of this? me, apparently). nowadays, i always make sure to close my window shades before it gets dark because i'm afraid of looking out to the woods when it's dark.. never know what my mind my conjure up. i always clean my room and shut my closet doors and take a mental note of where things are in my room so that if i wake up in the night, nothing misplaced will scare me. most nights i don't even go to sleep until it's light. like tonight. you'd think that as i got older this would go away. and it did for a while. but now, now i sleep in a house with two old people who wear ear plugs and a quadriplegic! if something bad happens in this house, i'm their only hope! so i feel the need to be alert (beside my inability to rest peacefully). not that i know what i would do if something were to happen.. what do i think i'm going to do? haul reed over my shoulder and carry him out? not possible. so anyway, i'm terrified of the dark. most nights i curl up in a cowardly fetal position and think "i want my daddy" and try not to open my eyes for fear that i might see something in my room. it's all really ridiculous and i know it. but i can't help but be scared. i tell myself that there is nothing to be afraid of but i don't believe myself. ok i think i'm rambling now because it's 3:36 in the morning and i'm just delaying the turning off the lights part. farewell followers! (in case i don't make it through the night ;))

MassaBOOsetts

so i decided i would go to the singles ward today and try to make some friends. i've been lonely. the problem is that there are like four singles wards in Massachusetts and they all happen to be an hour a way. so i just picked one in Cambridge and put it into map quest. so i leave so i could be there just in time so i wouldn't have to try to make small talk with the bishop or anything like that. i always feel awkward. so i get to the street that i'm supposed to be on and the paper says the church should be on the right so i drive up and down the street for like ten minutes which is hard to do because like every other street is a one way street and you can't make u-turns. so anyway, i can't find it anywhere so i decide i'll park and walk and see if i can find it but it turns out that the only parking left on the street is like four blocks from the address. so i'm walking down this cobble stone sidewalk in heels, not a good combination, and i finally see it and i'm frustrated because the sign like blends into the brick on the church and there are fences all around it. it's under construction. turns out it burned to the ground not too long ago. but there are lights on inside and it's almost finished and there are lots of cars parked outside so i'm walking around the church looking for a little pathway or something so i can get inside and i'm looking in the cars to see if i can find any like mormon paraphernalia... i dunno. anyway, i can't find an entrance so i decide i'll just spend sometime looking around. there were a lot of cool old buildings with little historical signs outside of them. i even found a statue of Longfellow, who i had to Google haha. i did actually know who he was but i just wanted to make sure. so anyway, i'm walking around, enjoying the scenery and for some reason, all the other touristy people think that i know something. they're all asking me how to get places and if i've seen some sort of building or know where something is. weird. and then, all of a sudden, i see two missionaries drive by and they turned right by the church so i watched them to see where they go and i can only see them turn one corner but i figured it was worth a shot so i run to my car (barefoot, of course, i dropped the heels a while back) and hurry back to the street they were on (i made an illegal u-turn on a one way street but they'll never know). i didn't find it. i found nothing. but by this point, i was really lost and going back wasn't going to get me anywhere so i decide to find someone to help me (i forgot to print instructions on how to get back home... smart, i know). so i find this little supermarket that smells like the sewer and ask the service desk if they can tell me how to get back to route 2 cause that's how i got here but they don't know anything so they spend twenty minutes getting their computer to work and finally print me directions. after i leave, i realize the instructions take me on the toll road. i don't want to go on the toll road. so i go back in and find this manager guy who also smells like the sewer only mixed with cigarette smell and he's telling me all these things in such a thick boston accent that i really have no clue what he's saying. so he writes it down for me but he scribbled out half of the things he wrote and long story short, they got me no where. except to watertown. but i think that just happened by a miracle. so i still don't know where i am so i pull into the Best Buy there and ask the service desk for some help and the ridiculous girl tries to sell me a GPS!!!! agh i wanted to scream at her. i don't want to buy a GPS! i want to get directions to get home! so then there are like three people who work there plus two people in the line behind me all telling me different ways to get home and i don't even know what they're saying because i don't even know where i am and finally i hear someone say "20 main" and i know that that road goes straight into Northborough so i'm way excited and i tell them to just get me onto 20. the directions they gave me were weird and told me to get off of 20 and then get back on like four miles later but i didn't listen, i just stayed on 20 the whole time and eventually made it back. so, if you ever want to know how to get home from Cambridge, don't ask me, or the people at the Stars market. but, if you want to know how to get home from Watertown, i'm your girl. don't even bother stopping in at the Best Buy cause they'll just make you buy a GPS. besides not actually going to church, which was the worst part of all of it, i only had one church cd in my car and i listened to it seven times. yep, seven times. one good part was that i got to see the boston temple! just from the freeway but it still made me happy.

and now, a rant about driving in Massachusetts:

nothing makes sense.

what's with only putting the street signs of streets you could turn onto but not the street you're on? sometimes, i kinda wanna know where i am.

don't you know you already have enough trees? we don't need the trees coming clear out to the street so that we can't see the street signs. so annoying!

why are the street lights way over on the side of the road? why can't they be in the middle where we can see them like everywhere else in the world?

it would help if you could have a street number instead of "lexington" for a street name. did you know there is a "lexington" in EVERY SINGLE town in new england!? freak!

it might be a little more convenient if the sign that tells you which turn takes you where was before the turn actually comes. we need to be prepared, people.

also, why can't a road be going north and then continue to go north? why do you have to make it turn all the way around and then turn back the direction you want it to. not only that but you may have to make a turn to make sure you stay on the right road. what?

and why can't the road have the same name the entire time that it's still a road? what is the point of changing the name of it? did we really need another Lexiongton?

and lastly, what on earth makes people think they can stop in the middle of the road!!???? you can't! you'll kill someone.

so yep, that was my sunday. can you tell i really felt the Spirit? yikes...