Saturday is a special day

It's the day we get ready for Sunday.

Saturday is cleaning day. I had no appreciation for cleaning day as a child as it seemed strikingly similar to school days only with more physical labor and less recess, but now, as an adult (of sorts) I can appreciate cleaning day. I can appreciate why my mother would feel embarrassed if people came over and the house wasn't clean. That doesn't mean I like cleaning day any more than I ever did. I don't really. Cleaning is pretty low on the list of things I want to do on my day off from work. But having a clean apartment is pretty high on the list of things I want. It's hard to reconcile those two.

So I spent this morning brainstorming on how to get a clean apartment without doing any of the cleaning myself. I drew a couple diagrams and mapped out pros and cons of different options, but in the end it became clear to me that the most cost efficient thing to do was for me to just clean my place up myself. Naturally, having reached that conclusion, I threw the diagrams on the ground and decided I would attend to them later.

Now I'm at stage two of cleaning day (stage one having been the dedicated brainstorming session for alternative cleaning methods). Stage two is mental preparation. Now that I know how the day is going to go I have to get in the zone to do it. So far my mental preparation has involved shuffling some papers on my desk to make room for my computer, checking me email, deleting old texts, and deciding what background noise I want as I clean. Movie? Or music? Toughie.

Stage three is the actual cleaning. I'm not quite there yet. I'm still in the midst of stage two. Which, now that I think about it, is just avoidance. And kind of acceptance. ....Wait....What are the stages of grief again? I feel like this is all sounding kind of familiar.....
Whatever, I'm too lazy to look it up. But I know the avoidance is serious when I consider going on a run first.

Sigh. Time to clean.

Blog worthy

I feel like something has to happen for me to blog about it. But nothing's been happening. At least, nothing that seems blog-worthy. And then I realized that I give this blog too much credit. Nothing actually has to happen. People just want something new to read.

I think my newfound desire to actually have something to blog about stems from the fact that I recently told people I had a blog. And by "people" I mean my family. And a couple choice friends. But now I feel like when they read my blog it will be because they'll want to know what I'm up to (because personal emails and phone calls can't convey that info? I don't know why I think THIS is the forum to give everyone the 411. Maybe it's because I read the blogs of married friends and young mothers who can use this as a convenient way to tell everyone about the kiddos). Anyway lately I've been up to nothing. But instead of hiding this nothingness behind the guise of I'm-too-busy-to-blog-and-that's-why-there's-no-new-entries-here, I'm just going to lay it all out there. I'm just going to proudly proclaim: I've been doing nothing! Except, of course, the following:

I eat cookies. Often whilst sitting on the love sac.

I watch people playing video games.

Annnnnnd that pretty much wraps up all the pictures I have for 2008. Alright I admit it. I just wanted to be able to put pictures in this entry. But apparently I only have two pictures of my life here on Christmas Island. Odd.

Thankfully in the time I've been sitting here I have thought of two items worth mentioning.

Item #1. I've been meaning to cut my hair for, oh three or four months now. It has gotten really, really long. The kind of long where people look at your hair and say "wow! It's so....long!" But not in the "aw, it's pretty!" way. In the "that's sick" way. Unfortunately my hair stylist and I just haven't managed to get together to take care of the situation. I know she only styles part-time (or less....I'm fairly certain I'm her only client) so it's hard to find a moment when she's available and holding a pair of scissors and when I'm available and my hair is fresh and clean. It's complicated trying to coordinate so many events.

Anyway just yesterday I showered and was on my way to work at around 6am when my stylist (and roommate) woke from her slumber and asked "want me to cut your hair now?" In retrospect the fact that her eyes were only half-open should have been a warning sign to me. But since I'd been trying to cut these unruly locks for so long it just seemed like I should jump on the opportunity to get things taken care of. Who knew when she would next be available? I'd already waited so long! So I said "sure, yeah, that'd be great." She found scissors, I found a chair and sat down to be groomed. She asked how short and I said "I don't know, just take off the raggedy ends." I could feel the snip snip closer to my ears than I thought we had discussed (the "discussion" being almost exactly as included here - I said take off the ends, she said nothing and started cutting) but I didn't panic. I'd been to this stylist before. I trusted her. So despite the fact that my head suddenly felt much lighter than I had anticipated, I figured I should just wait and see how things played out. Anyway five minutes later we were done and my hair was a good six inches shorter than it originally was. It's fine, but poor Locks of Love is going to have to wait awhile before receiving any donations from me. And in the future I'll wait until my stylist has been awake for at least 15 minutes before having her give me another trim.

Item #2. Someone has a birthday coming up. A quarter century birthday. Time to do something fun. Memorable fun. I'm open to suggestions, but I'm dubious about anyone being able to come up with an activity to top last year's festivities and celebration (see the picture of the raucous party below). I mean seriously. Does it get better than this?

Vacay!

Dear readers. Excuse me, "reader." I am sure you have felt my absence keenly. But do not fret. I am back and am happy to report that at least 1/4 of my MIA status was due to my being on vacation up in beautiful Big Bear. Nothing like that fresh mountain air to clear one's head. And now everyone gets to experience my vacation vicariously because I am about to tell you ALL about it.

The trip is probably best told through pictures. They being worth a thousand words and all that. But of course I didn't bring a camera. Nor did my trusty roommate. So I did what any savvy internet user would do. I swiped a few choice pics off of friends' facebook albums. Thanks facebook.

Okay actually this picture is not worth that many words because it is deceptive. You can't tell, but we are perched on top of these precariously placed rocks atop a huge mountain. Or at least a hill. Anyway I was scared for my life as I sat there. And here it is on film looking like we're just hanging out on the ground by some trees. We almost look bored. How can I show off how adventurous I am when people climb higher than me and then take pictures looking down?

This kind of looks like we're playing on unfinished miniature train tracks. But really what's happening here is an intense game of horseshoes. The week was filled with horseshoe tournaments, complete with trash talk and a modified style of scoring (leaners were worth the most points as they were a rare accomplishment. Psh, ringers were easy). No one was injured in the competitions though a few times people did have to dodge flying iron. Turns out those horseshoes are kinda heavy and hard to control. Also, not that it matters, but I should mention that my team was pretty much unbeatable. Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha. We're ready to take on the real cowpokes now.

Here we are on our very own pontoon boat doing what any good crew would do: nothing. Well. Most of us did nothing. As you can see from the picture at least our driver was alert at the helm. Also the fact that I called him a "driver" betrays the fact that I know nothing about boating. ....Driver because he drives the boat? Eh?.... Even as they were renting us the boat I thought "Really? You're just going to let us take it and we're in charge? You're not sending one of your worker people with us?" But then I remember that the important thing in our rental situation was that I would never be in charge of the boat.

Anyway, the lake was great, we had swimming competitions, fed ducks, played cards and ate lots of sandwiches. And, of course, after lunch we chased down a pirate ship. But the pirate ship pretty much ignored us. Pirates are mean.

We also attended the Annual Miners Days Log Jammer Jubilee. We were very excited at the prospect of throwing axes and rolling on logs. But turns out it's not exactly like that. Yes, you could be a participant if you wanted, but it would cost you a pretty penny (although you did get to keep a chic orange "contestant" t-shirt) and you would be competing against real mountain men with long white beards and pony tails who came out of their isolation solely to compete in the tomahawk throw. So, what I'm saying is: a) you wouldn't stand a chance of winning anything or even looking respectable and b) when you put the mountain men in charge of running the events (as was the case) things move really slowly. Which means you probably will only get to see axe throwing before you decide maybe you should've gone to the Bluegrass Bluejeans festival instead. Although we didn't get to see all the competition we'd hoped to, we did get a feel for what it would be like to live in a place where everyone knows who you are and gives you nicknames like "peanut" and when you want to go to the annual log jammer jubilee and sell trinkets you made out of bark you just pack up and put the trailer in drive.

And what would a trip to the mountains be without a turn down the Alpine Slides? As you can see, some of us were not happy about being put in the beginners line, but safety first. If you've never been before then it's for your own good. Others, of course, lied about their expertise and got to go in the fast line. Don't let the yellow of the sleds decieve you. Those things were harbingers of death. Luckily none of us were booed by the crowd (that does happen if you go too slowly down the fast slide) and no one flipped over (which, according to the worker guy, is a daily occurrence). So win-win!

Ah Big Bear. Of course pictures can't portray everything. For example, the theater we watched The Dark knight in was, hands down, the worst smelling theater I have ever been in. Oh funny small towns. No but seriously that place was gross. It was like being in a nasty stale locker room that a tired-after-practice football team had just vacated. Sadly, I did get used to the smell. After the first hour.

We also failed to capture on film (and by "we" I mean the people from whom I "borrowed" the included pictures) the under-water breath-holding competitions in the kiddie pool. Yes we are aware that the little kids use that pool as a conveniently close restroom. But that only adds to the accomplishment of winning this particular feat of strength. In the end it was decided that since no one could even come close to the time posted by our 2nd Lt. friend, that it was only fair that we do a relay type race against him. Four of us would hold our breath one by one and he would hold his breath the whole time. And yes, he almost won.

All in all Big Bear was good to us. Nice suites, good company, good food, and of course friendly games of Pepper and Loaded Questions. Who could ask for more?