color them wonderful

hiiiiii friends. I know you must be very curious as to why I have not updated in so long. I am curious as well.

Here's a quick recap of what's been happening in my life:

** I had my last night of work at Hannah House on thursday, 11 November. It went well. I was sad and almost cried like, 7 times. Especially when the baby would walk over to me and then throw herself in my lap for a hug. Yep.

** All last week I had been sleeping in a sleeping bag on my living room floor. Surprisingly, I slept totally awesome allllll of the nights. Which, I wasn't expecting.

** So, my last night sleeping in my apartment. I was up late and got up early. Still slept great.

** Friday was spent throwing lots of things into final bags and boxes to jam pack my car. Morgan was JAM PACKED. Sometime in the mid afternoon, I brought the final load down to my car (which included Ruby Tuesday), and we left. We left!

** Poor Ruby, she was crying the whole way. She hates being in the car.

** So, not long into our journey, I realized that my MP3 cord had become unplugged and I could not listen to my iPod anymore. This needed to be fixed, because I've started listening to this great band, Florence and the Machine, which you all must listen to, and I needed to listen to their record. Like, immediately.

(Keith told me about this band – and they ROCK. Like, I love their record so, so much. You may recognize 'Dog Days Are Over' from the radio. My fave is 'Drumming.' YESSSSS SOOOO GOOOOD.

** So, due to this situation, and also due to the fact that I hadn't eaten anything all day, I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts.

** I started shifting things in the back so I could open the center car console to re-plug in the MP3 cord. But no, the car was too jam packed and I couldn't get to it. So, the minor shifting project turned into totally unpacking and repacking my car in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. YEP. That was me, for anyone reading who might have seen me. It probably looked pretty crazy, I'm not gonna lie. Whatevs. THAT'S how much I needed to listen to this record.

** So then we're finally back on the road. I can't see anything out of my car, because it's so packed full. And, my so far only major complaint with the Prius is I find the rear visibility to be bad to begin with. So, it was like blind driving.

** ANYWAYS.

** I finally arrive home! Aannndddd..... there's nobody there. Yep. Empty house. I did receive a lovely text message however.

** So I wait for a few minutes in the driveway, being mad that nobody is home, but also being happy that I AM home. Also being sad that Ruby is so sad to still be in the car. Poor little girl.

** Finally, my mom and Kara arrive home. In Kara's new car. Yessss, Kara was out buying a new, used car all day. Sooo.... now Morgan has a little sister!! Kara named her new car Maci. Morgan and Maci! Perfect car sister names. It's a very nice car. Cute and spunky.

** So then I worked getting Ruby Tuesday all set up in my bedroom. The vet had told Kara to slowly reintroduce the two cats. So, that meant that Ruby needed to stay in my bedroom for a few days. She's still here now. Where I am right now. She's the best.

** Then, my mom had cooked a lovely supper and we allllll sat down and ate together. It was really great.

** I didn't really unpack much that night. Because I was super tired and was feeling all these mixed emotions and also confusing emotions about leaving and being sad, but being happy. And then being really happy. But also feeling guilty.... it was a lot going on.

** SO, on Saturday I still needed to go back to Hannah House to get EVEN MORE STUFF. That wouldn't fit in my car. And also CLEAN. And return my PO Box keys to the post office.

** So, me and my mom headed back up North in the morning. It was a nice drive. We got to Lebanon and just started PACKING and CLEANING. And that was the whole day. Like, the wholeeee day.

** We stopped at the post office before heading to HH. I returned my PO Box keys. AND – I got a $2 key deposit back!!!! TWO DOLLARS!!!! I couldn't believe it! I had not remember that I paid a $2 key deposit so that was super exciting. And it was very sad saying goodbye to that post office. Walter and Sherri were working. Sherri was the lady who signed me up for the PO Box right after I moved, and she was the one signing me out as well. Fitting, I suppose.

Let me just say: that the post office in Lebanon, NH is maybe the greatest post office in the country with the most helpful, nice people ever working there. If you think you're post office could be better – I will gladly challenge you.

Anyways. Then we headed over to Hannah House.

** I always find that I like cleaning when I'm actually doing it. And then I'm like, 'why don't I do this more?!' Same with laundry. I really like doing laundry. I cleaned the bathroom like WHOA. I think I lost about 10 years off my life from all those bathroom chemicals. My mom rocked the kitchen. Thank you, Mom for being such a great help.

** It took us like, AALLLLLLLL day to clean the apartment.

** And then it was totally empty. Nothing of “me” there anymore. It was clean and fresh and ready for the next person. Very weird.

** So then I had to go say the final goodbye to everyone. The four residents living there, along with the two babies. It was sad. The residents were like, “noooo don't go!!! You're the best!!” Again with the mixed emotions of feeling terribly sad to leave them, but also super happy to hear that.

** Almost as soon as I walked out of the house, I started crying. And cried pretty hard for the next 15 miles of driving.

I had to put on 'Today, I Feel Like I'm Evolving' as the driving away song, to try and help me feel better. It's a good song to make you feel better. I highly, highly recommend it.

** It was a weird drive home. Thinking most of the time that it would be the last time driving this drive for a while. The drive that I HATED. Ohhhhh I-89 I will not miss you. Except in the fall when the trees are pretty. BUT NOT in the winter. Ohhhh not in the winter.

** Sooo, we got home. Didn't unpack anything. In fact, Morgan is STILL packed up with stuff. Yeahhh it's been like, 3 days. Ah well. The beginning of a transition period is hard, guys.

** Everyone went to bed kind of early. I of course was tired, but couldn't sleep. So, I decided to do some interneting.

** EXCEPT..... there was no internet. NONE. NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT. Lame, internet, lame.

** Luckily... Keith was still awake so he called and we talked for a while. That was really nice. He was kind of telling me all these thrilling stories, but I ended up laughing a lot, which felt really great. Yeah, it was really great. I was telling him about the hard day I had and said something like, 'I think leaving there was just as hard as working there.' And, I think that's a pretty good way to sum everything up.

Then, we said goodbye and I went up to bed and fell asleep immediately. Like, immediately. That was also really great.

** Sunday was good. My mom and I cleaned the kitchen. Wellll....mainly my mom cleaned the kitchen while I was too busy being distracted. But, I did some cleaning. I helped cook supper. Welll, I started to help cook supper, but then got distracted again. I guess Sunday was a day of me trying to be helpful, but mainly being useless.

** MONDAY – was Sister Adventure Day. Also known as, SAD. Yes, it was a SAD day. We drove north up Rt. 16 until we hit North Conway. Stopped at Silver Lake, which was proclaimed Kara and Julie's Hidden Gem of the Day. What a great lake! Then, coming back south, we took a left and drove over into Maine, made a loop up through Portland and then came south down the Maine Turnpike.

** We decided that we wanted to have a few drinks that night. Since although not officially 'moved in,' I was officially living back at home.

** And it's a great thing that grocery stores in Maine carry hard liquor. Thank you, Maine.

** Kara suggested that we buy WHIPPED CREAM FLAVORED VODKA. Yeah, like, whipped cream flavored. I am generally open to anything, so I didn't put up a fight. Also, it sounded delicious.

We bought some root beer to go with it. Also some rum and ice cream and brown sugar to make hot buttered rum drinks, which apparently my mom and Kara had been talking about making for a while.

** We arrived home – still no internet – and started the drink making. The buttery rum drink was good. BUT THE WHIPPED CREAM VODKA – ohhhhh man. It was like drinking whipped cream. We may or may not have been taking swigs from the bottle.

ANYWAYS.

We decided that while we were drinking, it would be a great time to watch Hot Rod. IT WAS. Yep. I mean, that movie is hilarious when you're drinking water. But it's really hilarious when you're drinking whipped cream vodka and root beer. I looove that movie, actually. It's like, so ridiculous, but seriously funny.

It was a pretty great night. In many ways.

** Tuesday, I woke up to a great text message and started the day of awesome.

Then I remember I had told my mom I would finish cleaning the kitchen before the painters came to paint on Wednesday. This meant washing the walls, scraping off the last of the wallpaper remnants. It wasn't actually all that bad. I just put on some great music and went to town.

And I finished the rest of the whole kitchen! And my mom came home and said that it looked wonderful and she couldn't believe what a great job I did. She also said she didn't actually think I would do it. So, that was great.

Tuesday night, I met Kara at the gym. Then, Kara was like, “will you come with me to get gas?” So, I said yes. And we went to the gas station.

And I pull up behind her and then this other car pulls up on the other side of the gas pump. And I don't even notice these guys. UNTIL – they poke their heads around the corner and it's these three guys I knew in high school!! Sean, Ben and Derek. I was super excited to see them. It was awesome, actually. I feel like I'm totally back in high school, or something. With all these people from high school seeing me and talking to me. It's kind of crazy. But, I love it. And it's like, all guys that I barely knew or barely talked to in high school. But it's super great reconnecting.

So nice.

Then, Kara and I headed home and I talked Kara into making me pancakes. Yumm.

Thennnn we watched an episode of The O.C. And then! Kara talked me into going into the bakery with her. Mainly the deciding factor was that there was free wi-fi there. :)

So, we packed up and left for the bakery around...11:30 or so, maybe. I hadn't helped her there in so long!!! It was really fun. Ohhh I have so much fun with Kara it's crazy. I'm SO HAPPY that we're living together again. Because she's my favorite. Ever.

She let me make the muffins. I made:

• blueberry

• chocolate chip

• coconut lime

• cranberry white chocolate

• bacon cheddar

YEP. I'm like a pro baker, actually. I also made blueberry turnovers. And also used the wi fi.

TO WATCH THE NEW CRASH KINGS VIDEO.

Okk, so the one week that I have no internet is the week that Crash Kings release a new music video. WHO KNEW THIS WAS HAPPENING?!?!! I didn't know. I tried watching it on my phone, but it didn't work. But, I was able to read Twitter updates on my phone, and apparently a lot of the video has footage from the Crash Kings show in Providence, that Kara, Ryan and I attended back in August.

The song is 'Non Believer.' Which, is tied for my top favorite song, I think. (this statistic changes almost daily.)

So, Kara and I watched the new video at the bakery. UMMMM IT'S MAYBE THE GREATEST VIDEO EVER. Like, I'd say definitely their best. BETTER than the original 'Mountain Man' video which included brief Mike nudity. So, that's saying a lot. It's super sweet and just kind of chronicles their life on the road, and also at home – because there's a shot of Mike and Tony's mom.

ALSO – Ryan is featured a lot in the video, as she was standing right next to Tony at the show. Also, SHOTS OF ME AND KARA. Quick ones, but they're there.

So FOLKS – I am officially in a Crash Kings music video. It's my music video debut, thank you very much. It was a very exciting time. Even Kara, who pretends to be sick of Crash Kings, but really loves them, was excited.

So how awesome is that? It's pretty freaking awesome. Like, PRETTY FREAKING AWESOME. I kind of can't believe it. My newfound fame hasn't yet hit. I'm sure it will. And I promise I won't stop talking about it for a while.

ANYWAYS. That brings us up to....

** Wednesday. I went to bed at around 5am. Woke up at 8:30am to let the painters in. They were supposed to come at 9, but didn't get here until around 9:45. So, thanks painters, for making me get up so early. I was kind of annoyed because I was so so super tired, but then I met the guys and they are super nice, so I wasn't annoyed anymore.

I went upstairs and immediately went back to sleep.

Kara woke me up before she left for work. I tried having a conversation with her, but I kept falling asleep mid sentence. For real. Ruby Tuesday is a little scared of all the hectic-ness happening downstairs.

I slept until around 1pm. It was nice. But, I can't really do anything because the whole downstairs is occupied with painting gear and painting men. So, I'm spending the day in my bedroom, with Miss Tuesday. I was gone most of yesterday and the day before, so I feel good spending lots of time with her today.

Although, I brought up a yogurt to eat, and she ended up eating most of it. She's a food stealer. And apparently likes pineapple yogurt. I think she liked it more than me. Then, she brought some toys up onto my bed, so we played for a while. Now, she's taking a nap, and I'm writing this blog.

I'm actually writing this not-online, (non-line?) since there's still no internet. I like it, but it doesn't have the same feel to it. The internet guys won't be here until Saturday. My mom spent a lot of time on the phone with them on Monday, and they can't figure out why it's not working, and none of their suggestions worked. Bummmmmer.

Tonight, I'm going to a place with internet, though. So that's when I'll post this blog. Then, Kara and I are going to the gym again. Yuckkkkkkkk. Ugh I hate being sweaty. But I kind of like listening to dance party music...so it's a trade off. But, I really only like listening to dance party music when I'm doing something. Like, at a dance party. Or at the gym. Not like, on the radio in the car.

I've been really into that song, 'Bruises,' by Chairlift recently. I don't know what it is, because I've never really listened to that song until recently, but it feels like EVERYTHING reminds me of it. And it's weird, kind of. That's the song that was in the iPod shuffle commercial where it was all the colorful iPods and then all the colors started melting off them. And it was like, this really pretty melting rainbow.

The song is about like, being bruised over falling for someone who you like.

And it's funny, because “Chairlift” comes right before “Chamber Singers” in my iTunes, so after the song, it's AGAIN, like a throwback to high school because it's all the music I sang in Chamber Singers. Funny....

OK. I have to take a shower. And then maybe start laundry. I literally searched my room for like, 10 minutes for something to wear to bed last night. Because, I MAY have not gotten dressed yesterday when I was doing all the wall washing and if that was the case, I MAY have gotten wall paper bits and wall dust on the only pair of pajamas that I had with me in my room. And I didn't want to bring all that into bed with me. But, this is all hypothetical.

ANYWAYS. I'm gonna get going. I'll hopefully talk to you all later....? I have to set up phone blogging on my new phone so that this doesn't happen again. Yes, I'll do that. Then at least when I'm lonely I can blog and not feel lonely anymore.

Ok, I hope you all are having a great week. I am, actually. Next week is Thanksgiving, I'm sure everyone is excited about that. I am. A lot. Yeppppp.

I'll try to make sure we don't go this long without talking again. Because, that really should never happen. OK!

Take care, friends!!!

'and I can't keep you off my mind. I have tried, but you come right back in again.'