Another year better

I called my mom to tell her that her youngest daugher is thirty years old. Because that makes someone else sound old, not me. She replies, "I think of it more like my friend is closer to my age".

If you know me, you know I'm not much for sappy lines. But ... AWWWWWWWWWWW!

My mom rocks.

What do you want for your 30th birthday?

A few years ago, I decided to embrace the fact that the, or at least a, major summer blockbuster released on or within a few days of my birthday. Since then, I've had a Spiderman party, Superman party, (see releases on or near 6.30 since 2002) last year the theme practically wrote itself with the release of the 4th in the DH series, Live Free or Die Hard ... into 29.

This is actually a great summer for movies and I've missed them all so far, including Get Smart which I've been anticipating since I was about 7 years old. It couldn't truly be a birthday movie because they released it too early, curses!! Gettin Smart in my 30s, could've been great, alas, it was not to be.

The choices for this weekend are two-fold, Wall-E and Wanted. Which makes the possible themes "Wanted: Decade 3" or "Up Against a Wall-E: 30 and Counting". Darn them for putting James McAvoy in one of them and making the choice practically select itself; I'm so glad to know he'll have a happier ending than Atonement. Dang, I just teared up again over that movie.

And I always get popcorn at the birthday movie. It's in the by-laws.

What would you vote for?

Exhausted

To gear up for one of my two weeks of works this summer, I went to Colombia for 12 days, came home, had a houseguest for 4 days during which time we went to Asheville and toured Biltmore, and made a chocolate cake for J's thirty third birthday. Saturday morning, Dr. J and I got up about 3 a.m. for a 6 a.m. flight out of Charlotte (it seemed like a good idea at the time!). I barely remember either flight to Pittsburgh. After we got here, we checked into the hotel downtown and noticed there was an arts festival going on a few blocks away. After unpacking, we visited there and because we are such cool and hip young folk, we opted to go visit the Science Museum rather than hit a Pirates game (even though we are only a few blocks from the stadium).

Jealous much? You didn't get to use hands-on activities to determine the most effecient airfoil shape, now did you? hmm???? HMMMM???? that's what I thought.

After all that good fun, I slept almost 15 hours last night. That's more than twice what I usually get. Poor Dr. J decided to work this morning while waiting on me to wake up instead of going to get breakfast. And he waited. And waited.

Incidentally, I LOVED my darling houseguest and we had a blast! Please come back someday!!!

You know how parents will worry about you no matter how old you are?

Not mine!!!!!! Guess how many emails / blog posts / phone calls / any-form-of-modern-or-otherwise-communication I have recieved from my parents?? Let's count 'em ...

NADA. That's Na. Da.

I'm sure the concern for my safety is buried deep, deep within them, which falls under We Have Our Own Lives Now That Our Children Are Grown, Category 9b: We Have a Dog Now.

Yes I know today is father's day. I hope the puppy gets Daddy something nice.

Mosquitos

I have so many mosquito bites on my feet / legs / arms that one of my ankles has entirely disappeared into swell. I have cankles from the mosquitos. Not to mention cankles covered in red circles with a dot in the middle.

This was the result of the asado (BBQ) yesterday, which was great and we taught lots of colombian women to play Nertz. And man can those ladies CHEAT! Within minutes of telling them the "one hand" rule, they had family members - multiple - backing them up four and five hands all playing for them. But they can suck it because I still won!! HAH! I would have shown mercy if it weren't for all the flagrant cheating.

On vacation day 1. I was only conscious for a total of 7 hours yesterday

Sleeping in, the two hour nap, and early to bed just doesn't leave much time for being awake.

I'm back in ColOmbia; the origins of this here blog. You either join the alzheimer-like pace here or you go nuts trying not to. Hey, if you can't beat em ...

Two of our adventurous friends are joining us tonight. This is the first time to bring an outsider into our little foreign fog. Kinda scary for us, but probably moreso for them. They get mad props for braving the Other America; it's certainly going to be an experience, one way or the other.

Things I have missed since my last visit; the food here is so good and all so fresh. Also, the culture here always keeps at least one servant in the house to cook all the meals and clean up after you, clean the house, do your laundry, make your bed, bring you coffee in the afternoon. The first time I came I felt a huge amount of guilt about it. That passed because, really, who doesn't want to be waited on hand and foot. For vacation purposes it so SO relaxing!! And, thankfully, it opens up more time for important things like the 2 hour nap i took yesterday. Don't blame me for being lazy, it's exhausting pretending to speak spanish all the time. I'm such a poser.