Race Ya There!

Lauren, Kyle, Bethany, Sara, Courtney (Sara and Bethany's co-worker) and I all walked the Race for the Cure on Sunday. We had a really great time. We're definitely doing it again next year, and we might even be a little more organized about things next time! Maybe...

The girls and I at 7:30 a.m.

The bagpipers and Chris Peterson from WTOL, before the Race...

The girls, with the crowd, waiting for the starting bell....

A horse wearing bunny ears!

Lauren and Sara, during the Race...

Courtney and Bethany, during the Race...

Kyle, dance-walking to one of the many bands that was performing along the Race route...

These guys, who were cheering us on, were the coolest of all the guys/girls cheering us on....

...mostly because of this....

Anyway, it was a great experience and it's amazing to see the number of people who participate in this, and even more amazing to see how many of them actually run the whole thing! While their seemingly endless group ran by, I commented that there were this many people in Toledo who are more motivated than we are. Bethany said she wants us all to run next year instead of walk, but we'll see if that happens. I can tell you already, Kyle SO isn't into running.

Speaking of Kyle, last night Kyle called me to tell me that cops were driving by her house (my grandpa's house) shining spotlights in her windows. We talked for a bit and I told her to call back if anything else happened. She called me back a few minutes later to tell me that the neighbor had called and said, "Hello, Mr. __'s granddaughter? The cops are driving by looking for guys who might be in the woods behind your house. But don't worry, we're right next door if you need us." Needless to say, this scared the bejesus out of my already-skittish sister. In the end, nothing happened except that she lost a lot of sleep due to waking up and rushing out to investigate everytime one of her cats made a noise, which means I'm now allowed to laugh really hard at the picture she sent me of the "weapons" she had ready in case anyone did try to come in and get her:

You don't F with the bleach cleaner, yo.

On a completely different subject, my family is currently going through a difficult time. Things are very up-in-the-air at the moment and we don't really have a choice except to wait and see, and take things one day at a time. So, I'll give an explanation and an update when I have one.

In the meantime, hope everyone is having a great Monday!

Egg-citing Things To Come...

I haven't gotten very much sleep in the last 4 nights or so. On Saturday night, I was up till 5 a.m. at Bethany's get together, then woke up on her couch at 9 a.m. and stayed up for the rest of the day. On Monday night, I first woke up to my cat very loudly attacking what sounded like a plastic bag, but when I got out of bed to take it away from him, I couldn't find whatever it was and instead found just the cat, running up to me like he was SOO happy I was finally awake and let's play! I went back to bed, only to wake up around 4 a.m. to someone's car alarm going off. FOR 10 MINUTES!! Seriously, who doesn't hear their alarm for that long and turn it the fuck off?? I even went out to make sure it wasn't my car, and saw a bunch of other people doing the same, but obviously not the right person. Grrr.... Then early, early this morning, Bobby was spending the night on our couch and his cell phone alarm started going off. He didn't wake up to it, so I had to get up, wake him up, and hand it to him. He was very apologetic, but still... Erin's sleepy.

Anyhoo. Enough whining.

Lauren and I took a short road trip on Sunday to and from Lansing to drop off her old college roommate, Jillane. On the way home, we got lost in Lansing. I saw a road name I recognized and told Lauren I felt like we should go "this way" (translation: she should have gone the opposite way). We ended up dead-ending suddenly at a river, in front of which there was a sign that said "Road Ends". I told Lauren that I recognized the river as the one that goes behind Dawn's old apartment, and that sometimes they find dead bodies in there. Then I wondered aloud why I would point that out to her while we were sitting in front of it, in a secluded area where the road, you know, had ended. We turned around, wondering why there were no signs before the end of the road warning us that the road was about to end. Then we drove back up the street and realized that we had passed at least 6 signs, on either side of the road, warning us, "Road Ends 500 feet" and "Dead End Ahead". We are awesome.

P.S. We later stopped at Qdoba in Ann Arbor and the water in the restroom sink smelled like eggs on fire.

Up until Monday night, the only food Cory and I had in our refrigerator was 4 different kinds of cheese. Nothing else. Just cheese. BUT, 4 different kinds of cheese.

For the past few Saturdays, I have been listening to my The Very Best of Prince CD whilst showering and getting ready to go out. I have decided there is no better getting ready CD out there. And I hope my neighbors enjoy listening to me singing "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Purple Rain" as much as I enjoyed listening to them playing Uncle Kracker at full volume in the courtyard on Saturday morning.

This weekend, me, Sara, Lauren, Bethany, and Kyle will all be walking in the Race for the Cure. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm thinking about wearing my pink squirrel pants in honor of the pink breast cancer theme. Seriously, though, the community in this area is inspirational when it comes to their support of breast cancer survivors. Cory's mom is a breast cancer survivor, and while she was going through chemo, there were so many wonderful support groups and even people who donated things just to make life a little better and easier while she was going through something so terrible- gift baskets, massages, dinners, etc. It's wonderful that there are so many people out there who make an effort to show they care.

On a completely unrelated note, Cory and I will be going to Hocking Hills soon. I'm very excited about it. I reserved a cabin and everything. I used to go to Hocking Hills every year with my parents when I was little, but the last time I was there was when I went with Angel and her family during Spring Break our senior year (Spring Break '99!). This will be the first time I've gone without my parents or Angel's, so it should be interesting to see how often we get lost. :) Should be fun, though!! Hocking Hills is so beautiful, I can't wait!

Hope everyone is having a lovely week and if you know Cory's sister Dawn, be sure to wish her a happy birthday today!!

P.S. I tried to find a picture of an egg on fire by typing "eggs on fire + pictures" into Google, and this came up:

I don't know who that guy is, but I sure don't want him making my breakfast.

We Are Here, So Entertain Us

I'm so super-duper bored right now.... Boredom is seriously, like, SO boring!!

Last night after work, I picked up my bike from Kyle's and scared the bejesus out of her by going into the house before she got home (and I got dropped off so there was no car to show I was there) and then standing just where she couldn't see me when she came in. She had to walk into the kitchen to finally find me just standing there. My efforts were rewarded with a loud, "CREEPY!"

Old habits die hard cause I used to do this sort of thing to my friend Holly on at least a weekly basis. She had a long, dark hallway and I would stand pressed up against the wall or just inside doorways so that I could jump out at her whenever she walked back to her bedroom. Sometimes I'd stand with my nose against the bathroom door so that when she opened it, she'd open it to a close up of my face. Good times. The best part is, she fell for it over and over and over again...

Cory and I have been having bike ride/BBQ/DVD nights with Mike and Stephanie recently. Last night Cory skipped the bike ride but Mike, Steph, and I still went out and during our travels, rode past the Extreme Makeover house. I feel bad for the family a little cause there was a constant stream of cars driving past while we were there, and I bet that will continue for quite awhile. Not that I'm any better, cause I was there, too, but hey- I was on a bike, man! Totally different. By the way, I would like to state for public record that Stephanie makes THE best burgers ever.

I don't really have anything interesting to blog about today, I just currently have nothing better to do, so I will leave you with these three pictures that I totally poached from Angel's mom's Flickr account; all of these pictures were taken at the campground during Angel's visit home over Labor Day:

P.S. Angel and I walked circles around the campground for a good couple of hours, chatting and catching up on life in general, and did not know this last picture was being taken. We were just waving to her family going by on a hayride...Angel's mom is sneaky, you gotta watch out for her... :)

Dance, Chat, FESTIVAL!

I got to spend some quality time with my lovely sister Lauren on Saturday...

Because of our totally opposite schedules, I don't get to see her nearly enough. But we made up for lost time on Saturday by first going to and then immediately leaving an art show (we didn't go further than the obnoxious girl at the door), ordering sandwiches and watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, then walking down to the St. Catherine's Festival with Kyle, Sara, Aaron, and Bethany (Cory joined us later). Ridiculously fun times ensued...

Kyle and me...

Dancing to a Beach Boys cover....

Sara likes to harass the cops at the St. Catherine's Festival every year, and this year was no exception...after asking a lot of inappropriate questions, she made it up to him by having him take a picture with a bunch of pretty ladies....

(BTW, this harassment is actually a good thing, cause it gives us all time to finish our beers without having to throw them away after being told that it's time to throw them away.)

Sara and the boys who put up with our antics...

Lauren's Elvis impression (I post this picture especially for you, Angel). :)

Still not finished with our beers...while Sara continues to distract cops and Bethany gets a picture with L'Elvis...

I have to preface this next one with a short story: On Friday night, Kyle called me and said, "I dropped my cellphone in mine and Candaise's pee!!" Then she called me a few hours later from my grandpa's rotary phone and said, "Please go to Alltel with me tomorrow!" So we woke up early and went to Alltel, and giggled at the poor Alltel boy who was unknowingly holding a pee-phone. Oh, and Kyle told me all about how she had never used a rotary phone before and it was really hard to remember which numbers she had already dialed cause it took so long to spin the lil' wheel. Anyhoo. After we got her new phone, she kept dropping it and setting it in water and other general bad things that shouldn't be done to a brand new phone. Now....

I apologize to Bethany and Kyle for posting this picture of them, but look at Kyle's mid-air cellphone! Seriously, she just subconsciously threw it that time...

We wandered Lauren's neighborhood after the festival and met all sorts of other drunkards, including a lot of dudes who tried to follow us home, despite Cory and Aaron being in our group. One of them told us that he was going to play with something in his pocket, but after I laughed and loudly said, "That's sad, keep it to yourself, buddy," it turned out he meant that he had drugs in his pocket, which we were even less interested in. We got back to Lauren's and had our own festival, the Festival of Drunken Chitchat. We lost Aaron to the alcohol first, but to be fair, he drank before they came over...

Lauren and I stayed up till 6:00 a.m., talking on the back porch. Good times! I love my Lauren.

Oh, and Cory also got free pizza for a year from Gino's by getting to their grand opening 3 hours before the store opened on Saturday morning. It's actually only 1 pizza per month for a year, but still- 12 free pizzas is pretty cool.

On a completely unrelated note, this is what Knuckles thinks about the fact that Kyle's cat laid on our clean laundry before we brought it home. I concur.

Smooth Move #5,678

What happens when you turn on the wrong burner, set the food you're about to cook next to it, then wonder what smells funny for 10 minutes before then wondering why your water isn't boiling and suddenly realizing....oh, shit.

P.S. This was not a box of multi-colored noodles.

What I Did Last Weekend

Met a super-cute kitten who spends her time taunting a dog who isn't allowed to come inside...

Hung out with Matthew, Kyle and a bunch of other fun peoples at Stuart's "9 months later, my surgeries are finally done and my wrist is officially healed" party....

Drove Cory's mom around because she broke her ankle (if you want to know how she broke her ankle, send me an e-mail).

Hung out with Miss Lauren, who also loved the super-cute kitten cause she looks just like our old cat, Zipper.

Was driven home by Bobby cause everyone else drank too much, and was told, "Bright flashes of light while I'm trying to drive aren't a good idea."

Played disc golf for the first time...and won! (with a handicap, but still!)

Oh, and Cory disc'd, too...

Then I waited for Cory and Bobby to stop throwing discs...

Then I got bored of waiting for Cory and Bobby...

And I watched Friends with Knuckles, who actually sometimes uses the bed I paid a bunch of money for years ago, but only because we put a black dress in there that he previously was not allowed to sleep on.

Tonight we are bike riding to the house down the street that is being built for the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Then we are having a BBQ and watching the new season of It's Always Sunny on Mike and Stephanie's projector in their backyard. I am excited.

Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

Pants On My Beer

I loves me a 3 day weekend, especially one that includes a visit from my best friend, Angel.

I met Angel up at the campground her family was visiting, and we got to hang out and catch up on about a year's worth of girly talk and philosphical musings on shower caps (actually, the shower caps conversation came later, but it was still very heavy stuff).

Later that evening, Cory and I met up with Aaron, Sara and Bethany at Mickey Finn's, where an art show was taking place. Sara and Bethany were very drunk, and it was very funny. Sara is my favorite drunk person on the planet, ever. Seriously.

My 2 favorite quotes of the night were, "You know you're drunk when you bring Santa Claus into it. Silly cunt." and Sara yelling, "Don't spill pants on my beer! You spilled pants on my beer!!"

The picture above is Matt telling me he thinks Sara is crazy, and the one below is one of many attempts to get a semi-decent picture of me and the ladies on the never-ending walk to our cars. I'm pretty sure we lost Aaron out there. I also heard that Sara kept trying to make Aaron drop her off on the side of the road on the way home cause she wanted to go for a walk. At 3 a.m. In the worst neighborhood in town.

On Sunday, I went out to my first place of employment for breakfast with my mom and Grandma. While we were eating, the owner came through asking, "Is there a doctor or a nurse here? Is anyone here a nurse or a doctor?" I thought that only happened in the movies, but no, it happens in real life, too. I guess a woman passed out, or something along those lines, as a result of something blood-related, and the emergency people weren't getting there fast enough. They were there when we were leaving and my old manager made some snide comment about how the ambulance being there "made the restaurant look bad." She's just the sweetest thing, I tell you what. And no, I'm not just saying that cause she started a rumor that I was an alcoholic after I left that job.

Anyhoo. Later that night, Cory, Dustin, Bobby, and I went to a get together at Jim's, who lives a street or two away from us. Ridiculous hijinx ensued, the kind you only find when Jim's around, and the only picture I feel comfortable posting in my blog is this one of Jess and Kowalski:

P.S. The un-bloggable pictures do not include me, Cory, Bobby, or Dustin. We were not the issue. And we kept our clothes on.

Special note to anyone who sees me drunk from now on: Beware my drunk-talk. If you see me getting tipsy, point me in the direction of one of my little sisters and we will drunk-talk at/over each other and everyone else will be safe.

On Monday, Cory, Dustin and I went out to breakfast and Dustin made a joke that the waitress took the wrong way, and she then proceeded to go off on a racist tirade that left the 3 of us feeling a bit squicky. Dustin's joke wasn't even racist in nature, so I'm not sure what happened there...

I met up with Angel later at my parent's house and we visited with my parents, got ignored by my sister, picked raspberries and purple green beans, and ate some BBQ.

Oh, and went out for ice cream. Delicious ice cream.

After the ice cream, Angel had to go home, which is sad. I definitely don't see her enough and hopefully we'll be able to get together a few times before another year goes by. I'm thinking a Thelma and Louise-type cross-country road trip in a vintage convertible, but with less accidental murder and driving off of cliffs. Oh, and I would prefer not to be robbed by Brad Pitt, shirtless or not.