kids in america

I tried revisiting the old "new me" the other night. I could only get half way through the beer.


Why am I subconsciously giving the "live long and prosper" sign with my beer hand?

Cat and Pony Show

I've never been a big fan of horses. When I was little, my family went to Santa's Village. There was one of those real pony ride carousel things there and I really wanted to go on it. So we stood in line. I got to the front and I changed my mind. Then as we were walking away, I changed my mind again. I stood in line again...and I bet you can guess what happened when I got to the front. Eventually, minutes before the park closed, I finally made it on the pony. I don't even remember that happening, the only reason I know it happened is because my Mom reminds me of it. That and we have pictures. That is the one time I've ever been on any sort of horse. I think I was 5. 21 years later, I finally came nose to nose with a real horse(s), not a pony, for the first time ever. No, I didn't get on. But my brother did! He's been taking riding lessons for a while and I went to watch last weekend. He wants to play polo...that or be in the Olympics. Simple dreams.

I took some photos.

LITERALLY, sitting on his high horse.


I walked around the barn and took some pictures of the horses. They all look depressed.

Smarty, the horse my brother rides, in enjoying some hay.


Dirk, my mom's boss' horse. Enormous and very playful. He kept trying to get closer to my camera.


NO PICTURES!!!!


Diesel, the biggest horse in the barn.



A horse that looked ashamed of his/her bad weave.


It was nice out, so he went outside to ride. The horse seemed a lot happier once he got outside.



Barn Meowser. Covered in hay and likes to take poops in front of everyone while they are having their lessons. He was really friendly for a barn cat and I think he liked having his photo taken.


Maybe some day I'll get back in the saddle. No, probably not. Well, maybe...eh nevermind.

When the livin's easy....

*Editor's note: I have no shame in saying that I actually had to refer back to Gnarbarge to remember what I did this summer. Also, I did way more than I actually thought, so I'm probably going to do a Reader's Digest version of this report on my Summer Vacation. Sigh.

Started off the summer by terrorizing my cat.


Annual Dub Date! Froze my ass off at the Cub's game, in July.


Then I decided to "reinvent" myself. The new me lasted for exactly as long as it took me to walk from this apartment to Sean's car. Sorry to all those who got super excited about me drinking beer. You can buy me a vodka drink and we'll call it even.


I went to the zoo for the first time in over 10 years.

Talk about not reaching your potential.


Cheer up, Emo Impala.


Yeah, we bought our cat a leash. What of it?


Joe Hall arrives back in the upper 48.


Streamwood spends all it's money on pyro.



Got to go to the beach at least once. Good enough.


Wedding #1. Totally Goth.

Sean grabbed my boob, of course, when we were trying to take a nice photo.


So instead, I took a nice photo with my boo.


After the wedding we went for some....


at the....


The next weekend, I take "that photo" at Grant Park waiting to be squeezed into a crowd to listen to LCD Sound System at Lollapalooza.


Mere hours before Sean ridiculed me for wearing my sunglasses at night. I do what I want.


I traveled to Vegas for my birthday and in total honesty can say these are the only good pictures I have. I need a personal photographer.

Getting fresh at the Foundation Room.


Drunk.


A brisk weekend on the lake.


Wedding #2.


Birthday #2.


I let someone else have a birthday for once.


Wedding #3. I sort of like St. Louis 0.98% more than I did previously.


Boy is my face red! As usual.


Very DIY centerpiece. I love carnations.


Pretty much my summer, in a nutshell. An action packed 3 months that I'm glad to put to rest...so now I can get some rest.

Next summer I'm going to:

Go somewhere I've never been before.
Plan myself a killer birthday party. In this state.
Take better care of my flowers that I spent a minor fortune on.
Not book every weekend up before the summer even starts.

I hope I get invited to a halloween party. I have a killer costume idea.

The end.

I have exorcised the demons....

...this house is clear.

For exactly 2 years, 3 weeks, and 4 days....the item of furniture pictured below has been the bane of my residential existence.

My hand me, hand me, hand me and then hand me down again "oh I'll just slipcover it for a few weeks until we buy a real one" couch that has made appearances in my Grama's apartment, my parent's basement and my brother's apartment all before gracing me with it's presence. It has haunted me and taunted me for waaaaay too long.

For most of the time we had this couch, this is what it looked like. You might not have ever seen it look like this if you ever came over to my house because I had spent about 15 minutes "tucking" in that blasted slip cover and inevitably received some sort of rug burn on my hands all the while cringing at the cat scratches and snags that adorned the top and back of the beauty! Then it looked a little neater. Until someone sat down on it, that is and then magically like a balloon deflating, it went back to looking like this.

I paid nothing for the couch...so I shouldn't complain. But I will, because that is what I do.

Fast forward to the best day of my home owning life so far....the day my new furniture would be delivered.

Oh...why hello brand new, not outdated, not snagged, not stained couch and what is that....you brought along your sibling, new chair???

Welcome home, new furniture. Welcome home.

Next on the list...trashing my light wood tables from target. I think I've gotten more than the $80 they cost out of them, then ripping off the white tile from the fireplace, then repainting...then...well, I think you get the picture.