lxforever

“And the world at night / could see the greatest light / too much light to deny / July, July / the man I love and / will lift our heads together / July, July / I’ve seen the greatest light / too much light to deny”

—The Innocence Mission

“I’d like to be a marshmallow artist” (taking off of her aunt Jessy’s goal of being a ‘marker artist’ from years ago) / “No! I can’t work in a Chinese restaurant because they will speak Spanish!! And then I won’t know what they’re ordering and I will get FIRED!!!”

—Samantha, 7/8/12

“Mommy laughs sometimes when Daddy takes off his pants.” -Matt C. / “Matt!” -Steph C-C / “What you guys think is funny, I don’t think is funny.” -Samantha

—more 7/8/12

“Poor cherry. He was just growing on a tree, then he was picked, put in the freezing cold in a plastic bag, then put on the fire to die.”

—Hakan, 7/8/12…sounds like a great children’s book idea to me (better than the later ‘book’ we all ‘wrote’/spoke on the dock as a take off of 50 Shades, ha ha!)

“Well I didn’t put those worms there.”

—Steve Mason, 7/8/12…well then who with the bucket of worms managed to strew them all over the cabin?! haha

“FIRE SKY BAR CHUCKLE SKY BUNNY BAR SKY CHARMER SKY DIAMOND DOLL SKY SKY SKY SKY SKY SKY SKY SKY SKY SKY SKY”

—@Horse_ebooks

“Be at peace.”

—Jeff, 7/11/12, wearing peace-shaped sunglasses…oh dear

“Don’t ever look back / don’t ever look back”

—Katy Perry, Teenage Dream

OMFG!

9 days without an update!!

What is this, 2006?!

JK. I’ve been busy…enjoying July. July! The BEST.

Today is a day of birthdays. Today is the anniversary of the Birth Day of: my dear cousin MIKE; my old friend HEIDI; one of my favorite little gymnasts from parks CHLOE; and apparently World Champion gymnast/OLYMPIAN Jordyn Wieber. So there you go. May they all have glorious days and years ahead.

Did you need to understand the Eurozone crisis?

I rode my bike to work. One, because we are a one-car family this week and Jeff and I both have separate EVENING PLANS. Two, because I like my bike. Three, because it is very gorgeous and amazing to bike alongside the Mighty Mississippi in the glorious sun. GOD this is the PLACE TO LIVE, people!

(Except I have only irrational burning anger for those fake XC skiers with poles who insist on existing. C’mon people, save it for the snow. Whatever. ALSO I have nothing but hate for the pedestrians who INSIST on not using the FOOT path and instead use the BIKE path. You b*tches!!! Grrrr.)

rant over.

manic update style over.

OK no it’s not. Ha!

I know I talked about Trials/the Oly team, but the more I think about it, the more I worry about the beam lineup and just meltdowns in general. Gah. Whatever. I guess we shall see in just 17 days, eh? Diana and I discussed this last night at tea. Among other things (mostly the uselessness of certain people in the workforce).

Jenny’s wedding pics came in and they are amazing!!! Seriously the best wedding photos hands-down. She looks like a freakin’ MODEL and they captured the day so beautifully. LOVE! There are 1200+ photos so I hope to get through more of them later on.

I am feeling really good about July. REALLY good. Optimistic and happy for maybe the first time in awhile here. It’s quite amazing. Most of this is thanks to Jeff (duh). Somehow some of it is thanks to Andrea (random but true). Some of it is thanks to a great few calming lovely days up north, yeah! And being with/chatting with Jenny! And a lot of it is thanks to SUMMER/July. Of course I have a hard time trusting this, but what can you do? Might as well take what you can while it lasts.

However. There are a few friends in my life who are struggling. It’s all very different situations, but more or less it stems from some form of heartbreak or another. So. I’d like to see the latter half of 2012 turn around in their favor. You hear that Universe?! *shakes my fist, again*

(All this fist-shaking is accomplishing hardly a thing. But. Might as well try…)

This is a very long update and it’s only half over. Well, that’s what you get. Hold on tight!

Up north was great. I love it and I love our lake friends and my family. I had a lot of fun w/ Jenny/Hakan. It’s really fun to have a legitimate ‘younger’ brother/new brother-in-law. I mostly made fun of him/vv and that was fun. Ha! It was perfectly relaxing and swell to just do whatever, whenever. Oh Yeah. Also my Dad and I finished up our logo. I should send that to him soon. He’s way into it.

Before I left for up north, I had brunch with Andrea, at the Day By Day Cafe. It was the PERFECT way to start off vacation. (By the way, Day By Day Cafe was a genius find [IM-not-so-HO, haha]. It was pretty sweet. I may have to return, even though it’s in St. Paul. Anyway.) She was in town visiting her brother/sister-in-law. However I don’t think she was moved to move here. Drat. Alas. Anyway, it was quite a fantastic meetup. I don’t know what it is, but some people just have a knack for saying/understanding/knowing the RIGHT things at the right time. I don’t know that this was the intention, but the entire conversation gave me a lot of hope and optimism about The Future again. OK obviously I have thought about this too much, especially as I am still ruminating on it DAYS LATER, but, by that same token, it was also clearly meaningful. So CHEERS TO THAT. I feel lucky, lucky, lucky.

I also had a near-perfect Fourth of July. At some point I meant to do an update about how much I love the 4th, but, obviously, that failed. Anyway. It was a glorious day spent just Hanging Out with Jeff. And though it was a random Wednesday holiday on a hot hot hot day, it exceeded my expectations (well maybe that’s why, hmmm). Here is what happened: I awoke at 6am. The forecast was for 100+ degree day but I REALLY wanted to bike SO I got out there and got after it. Biked the lakes in the early HOTness (VERY hot already, very steamy. I love it). Lots of runners out and about (some on the footpath. I will get you!). Sun rising. Quite lovely. Returned home intending to go to 9AM yoga but turned out Jeff had stayed up Very Late. SO then the BEST part of the day happened: I went BACK to bed and slept in with him. So not only did I get an early bike ride in, but I also slept in! Amazing! Best of both worlds!

2.5 hours later (yes…), we woke up. Whoa. 11ish. We go out into the heat, water the flowers, chat w/ my neighbor who’s apologizing for swearing as I apologize for watering midday and then go to HOT yoga in a HOT day. WE ARE CRAZY. CRAZY! BUT…it was kind of awesome. The instructor’s name was Becka. She was no-nonsense and very smart. The class was crowded and crazy. But a lovely way to, um, celebrate America. OK not really. Whatever. But very fun. I showered there as I was dying, then home to make egg salad and COOL OFF! (THANK YOU AIRPORT for our AC!) Read books! Play videogames! Sit outside for awhile (me), with a lime beer! HANG OUT!!! The Best!! Oh yeah. It was really really nice to literally do NOTHING all day.

We were going to grill but it was waytoohot. Esp. for Jeff. SO we picked up dinner and enjoyed The Wire. Finally finishing up. Confused but still good. Jeff refused to watch fireworks as it was too hot/buggy. I don’t blame him. Well he would have gone if I made him but I am nice. SO I walked down there myself and watched a few beautiful fireworks, eventually left as I was burning up hot AND people were setting off very illegal, very dangerous fireworks without restraint as the police had said they wouldn’t enforce rules more or less(??! but then they did do something good for our neighborhood last weekend, so…). AND I wanted to finish my book which I did. The 2nd Hunger Games book. I blame Liz. But I was way into it.

Anyway! A wonderful 4th.

Now it’s the 12th and I better get on the snake. Adios amigasssss!!!

ETA: It is also Kristi Yamaguchi’s birthday (according to Mirai Nagasu). I mean, I’m not like a fan. But just FYI.