When my parents moved in 2008, for the entire year before that, my mom had slowly but surely meticulously packed boxes upon boxes upon BOXES of our stuff and moved it to a storage unit near our house. She had a list with the boxes number, written on the outside, and the list told her what was in each box. When the house sold, all the sudden things were a lot less meticulous and the things that we used on a daily basis got shoved in with my old baby dolls and Lauren's old Barbies.
Lauren's old Barbies also warrant a post in and of themselves, because when we attempted to clean out the storage unit, we uncovered ELEVEN BOXES OF BARBIES. That doesn't include her Barbie house, cars, boats, etc. But I digress.
So back at Thanksgiving last year, I decided that I wanted, er, HAD TO HAVE, all my stuff out of the storage unit. I didn't trust that storage unit with all those nasty bugs, I thought someone was going to come in and steal all of my Berenstein Bears books and my report cards from Kindergarten-12th grade, and I was POSITIVE that the rest of my family just could not be responsible for my personal items that I just had to have for the rest of my life or I would die, such as my Bee, my spoon cabinets, and a mirror my best friend etched for me for my 17th birthday.
My mom & I dug through all 493 boxes and I found all the things I wanted. My spoon collection, my Berenstein Bears books, my report cards from Kindergarten-12th grade, the newspaper I was quoted in after 9/11, holiday decorations, the whole nine yards.
Well now that I've rifled through it all and gotten nostalgic and cried over pictures of my 135 lb 18 year old body, all that SHIT is sitting in my our entryway closet taking up a lot of space, and really not getting used. Now that I know it's there, I don't really want it. I'd like direct and immediate access to it, but I really don't need it to be sitting in our closet taking up copious amounts of space (and I'd imagine my roommate will be delighted with the removal of these things from our house). So tonight, I will be removing it from my immediate vicinity and putting it BACK in the storage unit, trusting that at least if it goes up in flames tomorrow, I won't be the only one missing 20 years of my life.
I was having a hard time deciding what to get for/do for my dad for Father's Day.
Option 1: Season 1 Big Bang Theory. My dad loves this show, as I think a lot of dad's will. Bazinga.
Option 2: A gift card to the Bass Pro Shop. Since moving to Florida, he has become addicted to fishing. This warrants another post in and of itself.
Option 3: Georgia Tech gear. He can never have enough. EVER.
Option 4: Just send a card and call it a day.
Option 5: Treat him to dinner with me next time he's in town (approx. every 6 weeks).
In the end, I went with Option 3! I bought him a pair of GT Croakies, and I bought myself a matching pair. I gave them to him while I was visiting with them in SanDestin over Memorial Day Weekend, and I have to say... HUGE SUCCESS!!! He put them on immediately and even when I saw him today, was still sporting the GT Croakies!
So, if you are looking for a gift idea for Pops Day, hopefully these were some thought-provoking ideas. If not... leave some suggestions in the comments for others!
I'll do a full tribute to my Dad post soon... he's earned it :)
Even though I think there are approximately 3.2 people who actually expect an update from me, I feel as though I should apologize for being boring, lame, and missing. I've been BUSY. Beyond BUSY. The BUSIEST I've ever been.
Slammed at work - trying to redesign a website is hard, but today is the day it will all be revealed my friends. We've had deadlines and meetings and manufacturers and more meetings and more deadlines but FINALLY i think things are settling back down into a little bit more normal routine. I say that, and I'm really kind of supposed to be doing other stuff right now in preparation for my 5 hours of meetings that are taking place starting in 45 minutes.
So anyway...excuses aside, I'll do better. I leave you with a story.
I got home from dinner last night (at Rocky Mountain pizza... hello college nostalgia!) and was laying in my bed reading. I see movement out of the corner of my eye. We all know how well I deal with bugs... GUESS what was creepy-crawling all over my bed? Stupid little spider. I went and got my trusty bug-killer shoe and stomped that little dude. I just washed my sheets yesterday morning, too. Oh well, he's long gone now. I hate bugs.
i don't know why i was thinking about this, but i was. these are some general things i wish i had known at some point, recently or long ago, that i have come to terms with now. that doesn't mean i take my own advice, but i'm at least aware of it!
when you break up with your boyfriend, the best way to get over it is to sever all contact. there is no such thing as being friends, no such thing as being nice, and no such thing as keeping in touch, at least not in the forseeable future.
designer rainboots are really not worth it. designer jeans, on the other hand... yes please.
moms are the smartest, wisest, most knowledgable humans on the earth. i'm pretty sure they get smarter as we get older, too.
you are fully capable of killing the bugs, changing your windshield wipers, and moving big heavy boxes, but having boys around to do those things is just better.
if you want something, go after it. nobody can make your dreams come true faster than you can. you just gotta "put your number in the tip jar and hope that eventually he'll propose!"
alcohol makes small problems bigger but at least its fun in the meantime. and, once the problem is monstrous, it's probably better to figure it out without robert mondavi's help.
friends are there to pick you up when you fall. thats why they are your friends. and if they are good ones, they'll love you no matter how hard you fall or how many times. and they might tell you how tired they are of picking you up and that damnit katie have you learned your lesson this time?, but they'll keep doing it, because they're your friends and because they love you.
sometimes you just have to close your eyes and do what feels good.
what do you know now that you wish you had known then?
My friend Roxxy* is the best internet stalker I know. She found out that a man she was dating was in fact a divorcee who wasn’t exactly telling the truth because it was all for the world to see on the internet. She helped me (although to no avail) find the person in my life that I still refer to as “the perfect man”…although he was far from perfect.
And now Roxxy has put her internet sleuthing to more good use. She & I share a love for a few blogs. One blogger in particular, Amanda*, really bugs Roxxy. Why? Because she has revealed very few details about her love life. She won’t specifically name her boyfriend, but instead refers to him with a nickname. This drives Roxxy insane. Like, can’t sleep at night because she’s trying to solve the mystery of who they are insane. Roxxy has already identified Amanda’s best friend as the ex-girlfriend of Roxxy’s ex-love interest based on some pictures Amanda posted, some Facebook stalking, and a few discrete text messages. I’m telling you – Roxxy's good.
So today, we are discussing various blogger’s lives over gchat as per usual (we need to get lives) when all of the sudden the conversation takes this direction: (my comments in italics)
Roxxy: oh have you figured out who amandas boyfriend is? (best friend? we already determined this rox, keep up)
Katie: haha no
Roxxy: i totally did some stalking yesterday morning (fyi yesterday was a Sunday)
Katie: hahahahaha, who is it?
Roxxy: jeff* the guy she met when she went there
Roxxy: his name is jeff west*
Katie: how the EFF did you figure that out
Roxxy: i remember someone saying his name in a comment so i kept googling (this comment was probably last year)
Roxxy: i thought his name was actually jeff east*
Roxxy: then i remembered her briefly mentioning him 4 years ago on her old blog that no one knows about but i found** (of course you did)
Roxxy: i found out it was jeff west
Katie: you are such an internet extraordinairre
Katie: is he cute?
Roxxy: so i googled him, found out he was from china***, through that found his twitter
Roxxy: matched up that their celebration was exactly when she made poop sandwiches****
Roxxy: also he twittered from china the exact times she dropped and picked up "the little monster" from the airport right around their celebration (i can picture her going back and forth, matching exact times, feeling tears of elation as she has solved the mystery)
Katie: OH. MY. GOD.
Roxxy: yep
Katie: you are a FREAK OF INTERNET NATURE.
Roxxy: im crazy but i HAD to know
Roxxy: http://www.facebook.com/jeff.west**
Roxxy: theres a picture
Katie: STOPIT.
Katie: oh he’s cute
Roxxy: yeah not my type but i mean good job amanda
*all names have been changed to protect the innocent (and stalked)
**situation has been exaggerated for humor’s sake
***location changed to match my inspiration for jeff west’s name
****this might be the best clue of the whole post if you are really trying to figure out who’s blog Roxxy actually stalked
The Dixie Chicks just came on my Pandora station (Sugarland radio!) and it reminded me of some fantastic news I heard the other day!
Two Dixie Chicks, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, have joined together to form new country music group Court Yard Hounds! I got a chance to download the album, and I haven't listened to it yet but I wanted to let ya'll know it's available. As far as I can tell, the Chicks are still a group, and this is just a side project these two wanted to do while waiting for their 3rd partner in crime to prepare for recording a new album.
I know I was a huge Dixie Chicks fan back in the day (my 5th grade imagination got a little carried away with Goodbye, Earl!) and I am so so excited to sit down and give the new album a good listen. Maybe I'll burn it onto a CD and throw it in the car for those mornings when the radio shows do nothing but talk, talk, talk. Does that bug anyone else? I listen to the radio for music, not Miley Cyrus droning on and on about how there are aliens in her backyard.
Yes, that is what I heard on the radio this morning. I promptly changed it to a station playing REO Speedwagon.
That's all. Enjoy your weekends. I'm planning on making mine the best weekend ever!
s, I thought someone was going to come in and steal all of my Berenstein Bears books and my report cards from Kindergarten-12th grade, and I was POSITIVE that the rest of my family just could not be responsible for my personal items that I just had to have for the rest of my life or I would die, such as my Bee, my spoon cabinets, and a mirror my best friend etched for me for my 17th birthday.
