Hard at Work

This picture was in a presentation at work?!

"I'll take the stairs, thanks."

Today for lunch the Development Staff went to Red Robin. All six of us piled into one woman's mini van and headed across town. It was like a field trip, and I love field trips. As we got back to the office we all got into the elevator to come up two flights from the parking garage. Just as the doors closed my boss said "this thing is probably going to stall because the last time I was in here the guy told me no more than five people at a time." Sure enough, just as the words escaped her mouth, we stopped moving. We were stuck in that elevator for twenty minutes. It got pretty hot and stuffy, but nobody panicked. Our co-workers stood outside the elevator to both keep us company and to laugh at us. When we were finally released we were greeted by cameras flashing, and a video clip is currently circulating around the office of our hilarious escape.

I found Myrtle

We named Grandma's turtle Myrtle. Then she was missing for a long time and we thought she might be gone forever. But don't worry, I found her this morning on the other side of the yard. Whew.

Celia and Gris

Finally, the crazy pictures of Celia and me walking around Times Square wearing eye patches have arrived. But first let me give you some background on how she and I always end up doing ridiculous things when we're together.

Celia is a friend from high school, and pretty much the only friend from Santa Fe that I keep in touch with these days. I feel like it may be hard for some of you readers who know me here in Richmond to imagine me acting in silly ways with her, but it's true. We speak in a funny dialect that involves saying "yah" or "cha" a lot. She calls me Gris, which is Gray in Spanish. She makes up songs about me wearing Swedish socks or being in the ghetto. In high school we would switch one of our shoes and walk around all day like that. Or we would put chapstick on each other. Once I got a crazy hair cut (not much unlike the one I recently got) so she started calling me Hiawatha, and then she made me a headband out of pipe cleaners that I wore in English class. At an amusement park in Denver we wore Spongebob Square Pants temporary tattoos. We also snuck around the school parking lot leaving secret messages on cars while humming the James Bond theme.

Over the Memorial Day weekend I visited her in New York. On my last night there we planned to wander around the East Village. We honestly don't know when or why we started talking about it, but we thought it would be fun to look like pirates and search for sailors, since it was Fleet Week. Most people would laugh and say "yeah, that would be funny," but we actually went looking for eye patches. Celia happened to know from past experience that Walgreens carries them (KMart, we found, does not). Donning our patches we headed to Times Square where we knew we could find sailors at midnight, and sure enough...



We also happened upon this place, and got two men pushing baby carriages at 12:30 am to take our picture.



Good times.

10 things

As instructed by Valerie...

10 Things I Love:

1. orange currant scones
2. those plastic letter openers with advertisements on them
3. going on walks during my lunch break
4. crossword puzzles
5. Carnation Instant Breakfast, milk chocolate flavored
6. playing the piano for my Grandpa
7. Danny, the best dog ever
8. hippopotamuses when their mouths are open
9. Modigliani paintings
10.head massages

10 Things I'm Fascinated By:

1. Civil War reenactments
2. how people get real jobs
3. parents who give their kids stupid names
4. how people made maps back in the day, or even today
5. life in the Peace Corps
6. married life
7. how people swim in the ocean without worrying about sharks and jellyfish and stingrays and crabs and seaweed getting wrapped around their legs
8. rural towns, and the people who live in them
9. girls who are beautiful all the time
10.people who have never left the state they live in

Apple, Lettuce, and Hot Dog

Those are things my Grandma feeds her new turtle. Grandpa found a turtle in the front yard yesterday and they put him in the back yard, where Grandma set up a little water dish and puts out food. She hasn't named it yet but she thinks it's a girl because it has brown eyes. She's pretty excited.

Happy June

I'm a big fan of musicals. Old ones, new ones, and especially ones about US Presidents. In Carousel, by Rogers and Hammerstein, there's a number where they dance around and jump off of roofs while singing "June is busting out all over!" My dad used to sing that song when June came around, and I like doing it, too. Usually I just sing it with him, but you should have seen how excited I was two years ago when I was in Stockholm and the girl I was traveling with sang it with me! Anyway, this morning at work I got a call from my dad singing those familiar lyrics, and it made me smile. I'm sure I'll be humming it all day.