West Coast Girl

The day started off a little rough because of my new haircut. It's too short!!! It looks funny!! It's all flippy in inappropriate places. It's a little too "business on the top, party in the back". And the woman who washed my hair yesterday looked like an East German prison guard. She kept on smacking the shampoo and conditioner into my head. It wasn't very relaxing.

But then Sarah drew a face onto a balloon saying "Happy Birthday, Katherine" and stuck it on the door. And it's beautifully sunny and not humid today, and everyone at work is wishing me happy birthday and took me out to lunch, and Kevin sent awesome, awesome flowers. I love my life. And I haven't even seen him yet, plus fun lawn concert tonight at Wolftrap with Elizabeth and Karl and Drew. And all sorts of fun people have been e-mailing me.

Happy birthday to me, indeed.

Okay, Happy Birthday to me (tomorrow). All I can think of that I want is music, so Stephen & David, this list of artists I don't have enough of is for you:

Beastie Boys
Beyonce
Bonnie Raitt
Counting Crows acoustic CD's
John Mayer
Modest Mouse
No Doubt
Outkast
Loretta Lynn (the newest one, preferably)

Plus anything else you think I might like. I trust you.

So my flight to Nashville from Baltimore this weekend was uneventful. I finished Everything is Illuminated, which made me cry for about the last hour of the flight. My brother Stephen and my dad picked me up from the airport, and we made our way back to the hotel and picked up my mom to go the rehearsal dinner. It was big fun -- lots of square dancing and barbeque. I had a good time hanging out with my brother and cousins, and got to catch up with some I hadn't seen in years (boo on that). One of the best parts was telling them about Kevin, the boy (man) who I've been dating for the past few weeks. They were happy to hear it, and told me they could see how excited I am. Ashley (my cousin who was getting married) looked lovely, and Nathan's family was very nice.

Saturday was clear and warm -- a perfect wedding day. We gave them their gift, an Amish rocking chair, in the morning, and then my family went out to lunch with the Millers from Ohio. The wedding was in the afternoon, and also lovely. The reception was on the church grounds immediately afterwards, with live bluegrass music and more hanging out with family. Yay for all of those things.

Steph and Mark drove up from Atlanta on Saturday to hang out, so my brother and cousins and I went into Nashville after the reception. We pulled onto West End Ave., and almost immediately got pulled over by a cop. Not for running the red light a few blocks before, which would have been a little scarier, but for driving without headlights on. That's evidently what cops have time for in Nashville. Okay. But it did remind me that I still haven't put my registration in my car. Even though I got it registered in about Februrary. Maybe that will be my project for tonight.

So we pulled away from the cop and I thought I saw Mark standing on the corner, waiting to cross the street. And then I recognized Stephanie, so I rolled down my window to say hi. And realized that Kevin was standing on the other side of her. What???

He was supposed to be in San Antonio helping his family prepare for the birth of his little sister, but had flown to Atlanta to drive up and see me. He said he brought me a book since he knew I had finished mine on the plane (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius).

So we all went out for drinks that night with my brother and cousins, and then had coffee and walked around the Parthenon the next morning. It seemed like a good time for him to meet my parents, so I called them on Sunday and they decided to come meet us for lunch. So Kevin and Stephanie and Mark and I were sitting at a restaurant downtown, and my Mom and Dad and Stephen came in. And then we chatted for a few minutes, and then my Uncle Nate and Aunt Vi joined us. And then Uncle Dan and Aunt Joanne, cousins Katelyn, Rhoda, Jared, Kevin & Terri and their kids Caleb, Autumn and Eliza, and more cousins Maime & Clare.

They said they'd like to see him back at the family reunion.

We found out that morning that he had missed the birth of his little sister, who hid dad ended up delivering in the front seat of his truck (I don't think he was sad about missing that part). Booooo on that. But I think he had a good time. I did.

So LA, San Diego, all of California was awesome this weekend. My trip started by getting off the plane and going to an unexpected place with my friends from college. You might have to ask me in person for the lurid details.

Saturday was fun wedding times with Jeff and Megan getting married. They looked awesome, and so happy.

After the wedding we went to a karaoke bar in K-town for a little afternoon enjoyment. There's now an e-mail strand going around my group of college friends, mostly complaining about the horrible songs I made them sing. So the lesson here is, if you hand someone a microphone and start a song, they will probably sing it. Beer helps (but isn't necessary if you're Andy Julian).

And then to a bar called the HMS Bounty for dinner, and then the Red Lion for drinks. Who knew the edge of Glendale could be fun?

Sunday was a lovely breakfast with Sandra and Andy, and then fun lunch at Islands with Liz and Greg. They're the cutest! And they're leaving today for Italy. I drove to San Diego that night, and got to spend good time with Kristin (yay!).

Monday was sleeping and a little bit of work, a little bit of sunshine. Dinner (yummy sushi) with Kristin, Jessica and Dr. Mark, who is lovely (and so funny that at some point in the night each one of us almost spit up food). Then ice cream and meeting up with Ryan in La Jolla, and drinks at Cass St. Bar & Grill, which at some point in the not-too-distant future would make a great local pub for me.

Tuesday was working and lunch with Kristin (In'n'Out) (so good I almost cried). (Not really, but it was really good). Then grocery shopping back in a state where they sell liquor at the grocery store, and back to Kristin's for barbeque, Laker's game, movie and hanging out with lots of fun people.

Awesome.

And even better that I got back in the office on Thursday and was caught up by the end of the day. That's not really better in the "feeling like my job is important" sort of way, but good in the "not worrying about taking time off" sort of way.

And now there's a fun friend in town for the weekend, and the sun is shining in DC (except for all of the summer storms). Yay for that.

Coffee
Salad for lunch (and pizza -- that was good)
A few goldfish (crackers)
Chips
Salsa
Cheddar cheese
Chocolate frozen yogurt
Chocolate chips

This is what I've had to eat so far today:
Coffee
More goldfish (crackers)

I need to work on that.

Seriously, are there just sterioids floating in the air in Tampa Bay? When did they become a sports powerhouse? Why have they won a Stanley Cup, World Series and Superbowl in the past few years and San Diego's got nothing? And Florida and ice hockey? I don't understand.

In other sporting news, this kid went to my high school. We had a couple of kids get drafted right out of my class (Josh Glassey and Kevin Reese) but I'm not really sure where they are now. Mission Bay was known for two things: Baseball players and the Award-Winning Dixieland Jazz Band. I don't really understand how they got to be good at either, but evidently the tradition is still in full force. Although I don't have a crush on any of the high school baseball players anymore (and neither does Jessica, as far as I know).

The cicadas are almost gone, and I'm counting down to California this weekend. What will I find to fill my time? Oh, that's right, soooooo much work. The slowing down has undergone a reversal.

When I have time to check The Onion and put links to things. Link worthy today: This Site, where you can send a cicada (dead) to anyone you want to.

Much Ado About Nothing was great last night. And very much In the Park, since we got rained on for a few minutes.

This is a relatively slow and boring day-- but it's beautiful and sunny outside! I have tickets to see Much Ado About Nothing Tonight with Elizabeth and other fun friends. And this afternoon is our bi-monthly birthday party at work, where we will celebrate April, May and June birthdays with frozen yogurt and and fruit. There's not much better than free ice cream on a summer day.

Yay for fun beach weekend. There was no XBox anywhere to be seen, but there was lots of fun beach time, including football and frisbee and general cavorting (and sleeping in the sun). And discovery of new Counting Crows CD's, thanks to Andy, which are great. We went out the first night to a place called the Rusty Rudder, which had good loud music and really long lines for the ladies room. I got to wear fun dresses, and didn't think about work once. That makes for a perfect weekend.

And I still had another day to re-organize my room and go shopping for final touches. I bought another lamp at Target yesterday, so I can see what I'm working on at my new desk. The furniture makes such a big difference in my room. It really feels like a bedroom now, instead of a finished basement with my stuff in it. I need to find a bookshelf and something to put my shoes on (so I can clear them out of the way of the fireplace -- does bowm chica wow wowww translate into print?) and I will be All Set.

Now I'm back at work and it is pretty boring. More exciting: Shakespeare in the Park is this week. They're doing Much Ado About Nothing this year, with Sabrina LeBeuf as Beatrice. It's a good thing I've been catching up on my Cosby Show re-runs recently, and not just because I need to learn how to budget with Monopoly money.

Also exciting: some friends from CA are coming into town this weekend, so there will be fun times on Friday night. Next week is the Big Trip to LA and San Diego, and Jeff will get married!