Selfies

I wanted to do a post today on how my "No-Sugar-Challenge" went in itss first week.

You know, featuring what I ate, photos of smoothies, and how I overcame the struggles of my sweet tooth to become a better person inside and out through hummus and veggies.

All of that dramatic stuff.

But then I logged into Blogger this morning and I decided I wanted to change my look again. The banner, button, color themes, order of things on the page.
EVERYTHING WAS WRONG.

One thing led to another and I had signed up for both a Pixlr and Photobooth account, and I had thrown multiple hissy fits over links not working in html.

I took a break, and even though my "grab my button" box isn't working, (that sounds dirtier than I meant it to....)  pages to delete, and organizing to do, I am done with it for the day.

I'll post about the no-sugar-challenge tomorrow, (right before I head off to my first shift at an ice cream place...PERFECT) but not tonight.

Instead, I'll just post some selfies I took with Photobooth while drinking my morning coffee.
With my dog in the seat next to me.

GET READY FOR SOME ULTRA LAMESAUCE ACTION.

First Photo

Dazed and Confused

Family photo

Linus sneaking into the photo.

And then Linus being forced in.

Bug eye effect. (I feel like I've seen dogs that look like this before.)

Bruin taking a good hard look at himself in a mirror.

Bruin falling in love with himself.

Love the new look of the blog? Hate the new look? Didn't notice? Anything that is driving you up the wall that I need to fix?
Let me know in the comments below!

Stay Awkward, 
Tricia

Weekend Recap 4/26-4/28

Thought I'd recap my weekend. More so because I have a miserable memory and if someone asked me a month from now what I've been up to I would tell them I have no idea.

Friday after school started out with Track practice. (Yes, the weekend starts Friday afternoon.) Even though it's still hanging out with 7th and 8th graders, it's really nice to hang out with 7th and 8th graders that aren't the 60 that I spend all of my time with. Don't get me wrong, love my precious cherubs.

But when a kid does a sport they actually want to be there, so it's nice to do the coach thing after school after playing teacher all day.

Then I had to book it back home, had a snack, and Dave and I had to clean up around the house because our landlords were having an appraiser in. We also had plans with our friends who lived below us in another apartment to come for dinner. It was their first time seeing our new place so we didn't want it to look like a dump. We tucked boxes into corners, laundry into baskets, and swept all of that pesky dog and cat fur, finishing up by putting Bruin and Linus in the crate so they wouldn't bug the appraiser.

That's right, Bruin and Linus in the crate.

Together.

Chilling like villains.

Not because either of them are violent or whatever. They just both think that any stranger that walks into our house needs to be their bestie.

Not taken this weekend, this is at our old apartment. But I mean I think that this has happened more than once makes it all the better.    

So the appraisal was fast, and our landlords were not only surprised by the cuddling happening in the crate, but also how the place had come together.

    

Then our former downstairs neighbors came over to visit.  (Not the ones we ran away from, the ones before them that were like our second set of parents.)

 They brought over sushi and we made homemade pizza. I love having "family dinners" with these friends because they have such great perspective on life.

Saturday morning came around and Dave wanted to take me out fly fishing.

Notice snazzy pink fly fishing vest.

Now for those of you who don't know, Dave is big on a lot of outdoor sports.

He is a big hiker, he skis, he rock climbs, ice climbs, camps (all 4 seasons) hunts, and fishes.

He's for sure a true Mainah.

While I don't participate in all of the above hobbies (you will not be seeing me with an ice axe hanging off a cliff anytime soon, and I have yet to fire a gun) I do take part in the fly fishing.

First off, it's not boring like the type of fishing where you go out and just sit there. You have to work for it by picking the right spot, putting out a cast, and reeling it in the right way.

Also, have you ever been in a pair of waders, waist high, in a cold river on a hot summer's day? It's such a cool feeling.

Finally, I don't have to take it super seriously. I'm fine with not catching something. I just like being outside, hanging out in a river, usually with Dave or a group of friends of ours that like to fly fish. So that also means that I pick the fly that I like the looks of that day. (OOOH I LOVE BRIGHT GREEN TODAY, DAVE TIE THAT ONE ON MY LINE.)

It is pretty hilarious though when I do catch a fish and I'm using a fly that's "not supposed to work".

Did I mention Dave bought me a snazy pink fly fishing vest?

 That's a perk too.

We made it down to the first river which is strictly catch and release.

 We got our flies on and got into the river.

We got our casts going, got comfortable with our form and fished for an hour.

We moved spots, changed flies, but didn't see much action. I realized I had to go to the bathroom so I got out of the river to, um, spend some quality time with mother nature.

When I pulled the waders off and looked at my spandex pants I realized I had a huge wet spot right where it counts.

And I thought to myself, I think I peed my pants.

I mean this wet spot was exactly what it looks like when someone pees their pants.

Did I feel myself pee my pants? No.

Was it warm? No. Super cold. 

But Dave said there weren't any holes in these waders, and I mean, I did really have to go....

Maybe I accidentally peed myself when I hit the cold water.

So I went into the woods, did my business, and wondered whether I should tell Dave.

 If I peed my pants, that is totally gross. But if  I peed my pants that is also totally me.

After realizing on my walk back to the river that he is indeed stuck with me for better or for worse, I displayed my lovely wet spot for him.

I was cracking up, he was cracking up. I told him I honestly didn't remember peeing myself, but I had no other explanation. He rolled his eyes, told me to put the waders on and get back into the river.

He didn't care, he just wanted to catch some fish.

THIS IS MARRIAGE KIDS.

So we get back in the water, start to see some fish jump, but they're not going for anything we're throwing. Our friend Jamie ended up joining us on the river and he couldn't catch anything either.

At one point I was literally 5 feet away from some fish, I could see them in perfectly. I started just throwing the fly right in front of their face. They would look at it, move a little towards it, and I would see their tiny faces contemplate going for it, but then they were just like "Eh, I don't feel like moving to get that."

We had a case of Lazy Fish Syndrome friends. I mean we threw everything in front of them. They just weren't having it.

 But I didn't care. I had a great time hanging out and pretending I didn't pee my pants.

 Plus THE WEATHER!!!!  I could've been doing anything and enjoyed it because I was so thankful to get some sun.

It's really pretty until you realize there's a tire in the middle of the river. This was the catch and release place. No worries.

We decided to move to a different river, and wanted to put some dry clothing on so we could stop for lunch at this local farm/cafe.

I take my waders off for a second time, and it doesn't look like I peed my pants anymore. No.

 It looks like I peed my pants 13 times. So much so that there was liquid in my boot.

So the good news? I didn't pee my pants at all on Saturday.

The bad news? My waders had a leak in them and now we have to fix them. But hey, silver lining is that at least we know where the hole is right?

After eating the most organic BLT of my life we headed to the next spot a town over.

Not only did we not catch anything here, but the current was so strong that it knocked our friend right off his feet and down the river a bit. So it wasn't the most successful trip, but in the end we enjoyed our time outside.

Sunday for me brought yard work and school stuff. I posted here, then Dave and I decided that we needed to start working on our lawn.

 

Our landlord has some stuff piled up from an old shed that used to be on the property, so that stuff is piled in our backyard. It will be going soon, but with that and all of the pine needles it felt claustraphobic. Plus, what a pain in the buttox to pick up pine needles every time we go to pick up dog poo. While our landlords were going to take care of the lawn care, it was again gorgeous outside and we wanted an excuse to be in our backyard.

We also have some things we wanted to do to dress up the front of our house as far as planting goes and figured Sunday was as good a day as any.

First, we needed supplies. Supplies like window boxes, pots, rakes, gloves, seeds and soil. Our first stop was at a discount store here in Maine called Mardens. It has everything you don't need but you will buy because it is on discount due to water damage at some warehouse. We didn't find much as far as gardening but the trip was well worth it because of this gem I found in the furniture section.

I call it: Seduction of a Jaguar. Coming to an animal-print-themed bedroom near you.

3 stores and too much money later, we came home with everything we needed. 

This what my car looks like with garden stuff inside.

We raked and cleaned up the backyard, as Bruin watched with the wind blowing through his hair.

I promise we don't tie Bruin up like this, I'm not crazy about just tying a dog up in the backyard and leaving it because it could get away and it could really hurt itself But we figured since we were right there we could tie him up on the stake we usually use for camping.

Out front we wanted to put some flower boxes and pots.

Fun fact: years ago, before it was a nursery, our house was a general store. So we have this super awkward parking space and even more awkward awning. Per my mother-in-law's suggestion, we're going to put up some twine running from the white boxes you see to the awning and plant some morning glories.

If it works, we will have morning glories and moon flowers forming an almost privacy shade on either side.

If it doesn't work, we'll be the weird people on the street who made the side of their house kind of look like jail.

I'll keep you posted.

And that was my weekend! I'm now sitting on my couch, and planned ( for school) for the week. I think I've got a few blog posts up my sleeve too which will be scheduled to show up sometime this week (including this one.)

Hope your weekends were as weird, awkward, and sunny as mine.

Stay awkward,

Tricia

It's OK, OK?!

Thanks Neely and Amber for giving me a chance to affirm my life choices no matter how unhealthy and diluted they may be.

It's OK that I did a link-up yesterday and I'm participating in one again today. And guess what, I love Friday letters so I'm probably going to do that one too! And that's OK.

It's OK that if I didn't join this link-up today I was probably going to write about the West Nile Virus and other things on the news that scare me.
So just be happy I decided to do a link-up today.

It's OK that I'm addicted to my iPhone. And it's OK because everyone else is too.

It's OK that I decided to forgo the gym all week and have done Pilates and Yoga videos instead. AND I'm going to do it again today. I just hate having to pack up all of my stuff and get to the gym when I have to rush to work after. We all know what happens when I do that.
And if anyone would like to argue that I'm not getting a work-out, then you can just do Vinyasa yoga with me and we'll see how much you sweat!

It's OK that my school changed websites and I still have not created my new one. Like blogging I have to be in the right mood to get that sort of thing done. Because if I'm not there would be mucho swearing going on up in here.

It's OK that I'm a little sad for my summer job to end. Not only will I miss the paycheck, but I'll also kind of miss hanging out with college and high school kids handing out cones of frozen custard. It's a good time I promise.

It's OK that I pinned one of my own posts. I crafted and I'm not really a crafter so I feel like I'm allowed to be proud and pin that thing. (PS you can follow me on Pinterest here.)

It's OK that recently I have been watching the Youtube Vlog "Daily Grace" on a daily basis. She is ridiculously funny and the type of girl that when you watch her videos you're just like, "Yep, we should be best friends that make awkward jokes at each other." If you've never seen her, click the link above and check her out so you can spend an hour of your life watching a bunch of her videos. (Which is OK because I have.)

It's OK that I'm going to casually drop into school this morning to drop off some books when I really just want to check to see if my room's been vacuumed yet. Because if it hasn't then I'm probably just going to do it myself sometime this weekend.

It's OK that yesterday I took a 3 minute video of my cat meowing at me after my shower so I'd turn on the faucet, which may or may not also featured me talking back.
I have a dog (that I think I love more) so I officially can't be a crazy cat lady.

And finally, It's OK that I might try to squeeze in one more fun read on my Kindle before school starts, because we know that's not going to happen very often once it does!

What's OK with you today?

One Of My Favorite Summer Traditions

One of my favorite parts about summer are the traditions. Places you always go. People you always get together with. Food you always eat.  There seem to be certain things you  just have to do in order for it to feel like summer.

I have tons of summer traditions, because I am indeed a girl of the summer.

A somewhat recent one for me as far as my summer traditions go, is what we call "Family Camping".  Ever since the summer after college, I go camping with Dave, Bruin, and four of my close friends(oh and another dog). Three of them are our good friends from college, and the other is one of my best friends from high school, (who just so happens to be dating one of the friends from college. Isn't the way life works out just wonderful?) She actually has her own blog focused on design and coastal living. You can check her out here.
This summer was our fourth trip, and we decided to keep it a little more laid back than usual. No big hiking or climbing trips "scheduled". We brought our bathing suits, fly fishing poles, dogs, and a lot of wood and food to use around the fire.
After a tough week, and knowing there was going to be some stress in the week ahead, this trip was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Also, I was too busy relaxing to take out my "real camera" at all over the weekend. The following photos are brought to you by Mr. iPhone.

I traveled up in a totally packed Subaru with all of the girls and Bruin. I feel like my friend Rach in the passenger seat and my iphone properly captured the ride up for my main man and I.

Just getting some cuddles in.

We showed up to Mt. Blue State Park (one of my favorite and the boys were already there, setting up camp. We unpacked and of course set up all of our camp chairs to settle in around the fire for fire grilled pizza. (Hubby found that idea on pinterest! It was delicious and easy!)

It is important to note, that this was I think the first year in which everyone had a camping chair, we all brought extra tinfoil, each fire was started in probably 2 minutes, and there was enough bug spray for both nights. This might sound insignificant to most, but for me it was representative of the fact that I think our little family of friends are finally kind of adults!

We sat around the fire until the wee hours of the night. Bruin found a spot around the fire for himself, but then we reminded him that he is a dog and made him sit on the ground.

We stayed up late, chatted about life and who would survive the longest stranded on an island.
We went to bed late happy and relaxed.

You'd do the same if you were trapped in the body of a dog.

We woke up late, and did some more lounging around the campfire eating breakfast sandwiches.
We then headed to the park's beach on the lake. The girls lounged on the beach, swam, and gossiped. The boys threw toys for the dogs at the boat dock. We all reconvened for lunch at a private spot on the lake with a picnic table and place for us to swim.

Did I mention the lake is surrounded by mountains? Maine is beautiful.

One our companions decided to take a swim out to a rock in the middle of the lake, and made friends with some other man out that was just chilling on the rock.

And then he got spoken to by the lifeguard who paddled out from the main beach. Because apparently swimming to rocks is an issue.

Delinquents.

We made our way back to the campsite after swimming and tanning all day for some kabobs and napping.

Just delish.

Bruin was so tired that he forgot he was a person and passed out on the ground for a good part of the night.

After dinner we decided to take our lazy-campfire-smelling-buts to go fly fishing. I've only been a few times before, but it's one that the group enjoys. Plus I have a pink fly fishing vest. Sooo...

And guess what? I CAUGHT MY FIRST FISH! EVER!
(Sorry there are no photos, I was too busy fishing like a boss)

Not to mention, it was also on my first cast. What can I say, I'm super fly. (Pun intended.)
Now, it was only a white perch. But I didn't care it was my first fish. I grabbed it, got cut a little by his sharp scales, and let him loose.

Because there wasn't too much going on in the river we headed back to the lake. Waders and all.
We waded out in the dark and noticed as we got our rods ready that there were probably hundreds of mayflies swarming on top of all of us.

I made a couple of casts and then got another white perch. The fish were jumping EVERYWHERE. We were catching fish like crazy. It got so dark that we needed to break out the headlamps, but we kept going. There were so many hungry fish that at one point I put my rod down to untangle a bit of line, and with my fly just floating on top of the water a few feet away I caught another fish. Just out of control.

By the end of the night I had caught 8 white perch. I was super proud of myself. And I was glad to get practice reeling in and releasing so many smaller fish. So when I hit the big time next trip I'll totally be able to catch that bass/whale shark.
And did I mention that I looked great in my pink vest?

We headed back to camp, made s'mores, and reveled in the amount of fish that we had caught that night.

The next morning, we took our time got up and packed up camp.

While Family Camping is one of my newer summer traditions, it is by far one of my favorites. Nothing beats good friends and good times in good weather.

Have an awesome week and stay fab!

Friday's Letters (7/6/12)

Dear Bachelorette party invitations,
You're not going to sit down and make and send yourselves now are you? I guess you'll be one of my projects today before my 4:30-9:30 shift at the stand. Please be easy on me.

Dear Maine weather,
as I sit down and watch the national news about the weather across the country, I just wanted to thank you for being pretty awesome this summer. (so far...) I'd like to continue to hang out on the porch with my dog without getting heatstroke and getting a little bit of a tan. Keep making it happen.

Bruin and I tanning our bums.

Dear babies/adorable young children,
DEAR GOD YOU'RE EVERYWHERE. For me, this is usually fine. I oodle over how cute you are, make some faces, and compliment your parents on making a beautiful baby.
Now here's the problem, when I turn to compliment your parents I quickly realize that they're my age. "Holy Crapoly that could be me!" I think.
This seems to be happening all the time lately. Not just strangers on the street or work either. Many of the blogs I read are having babies all over the place. Not to mention people I work with, and family members too! Now, coming from a big family, again, I'm used to this. But recently my husband's cousin (he's only one of 8, opposed to my 45 or so first cousins) just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. AND SHE'S OUR AGE!
Babies you then have to go and put the nail in the coffin by being out of control cute, smiling back at the faces I make, and having seemingly happy parents. Adorable young children, lately you've all been super polite, again too cute for your own good, ask hilarious and endearing questions, and reading my signs at the custard stand way earlier than developmentally normal.

MY UTERUS CAN'T HANDLE MUCH MORE OF THIS.

Babies, you might be wondering why this is all such a problem (or maybe that face you're making is because you have gas, I don't know.) I'm not quite ready to have a kid. My career. My hubby's career. Our living space. Our finances. And vacations, I want to go on more vacations. All of these things= I am not ready to have one of you. I'm just not.
So, babies and young children, if you could, just for the next few years, be a little uglier. Be less polite. Start talking back to your parents. Cry when you look at me. Start pooping when I'm holding you. And really terrorize your parents before I see them so they look like zombies.
Oh and fight your parents when they put your chubby little arms into nautical outfits and preppy clothing. There's nothing that makes me want to have a baby more than when I see one dressed up looking like they're about to get onto a fancy boat.

This is a pinterest find. Follow me here.

Dear next week,
You're a pretty big deal. Not only do you start off with my birthday on Sunday, but some other stuff is happening that I can't really talk about here. I've been gearing up for it for a little while, and now my nerves and excitement are pretty high up there. Please happen swiftly, and please turn out exactly the way that I hope you will. Or else I'll be real upset and never speak to you again, next week!


Dear city I live in,
One of your volunteers called my phone and told me I would be facing a fine because Bruin wasn't registered at all and it's June. UH HELLO HE'S SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO ME AND HIS TAG IS TOTALLY FOR THIS YEAR! Oh, and I have the paperwork too. I'll be storming into your office today with my paperwork and an attitude.
Also, I'm getting tired of the trash guys just chucking my trash can into the middle of the road for it to roll away when they're done emptying it in the truck. I've already lost the cover because of this and am not in the mood for it getting broken because it's run over or thrown too hard I'd rather have to bring my trash to a dump than deal with that!

Yes, this is baby Virginia from "Queen of Jordan" on "30 Rock".

Dear Victoria's Secret Yoga Cropped-Leggings,
You came in the mail yesterday when I didn't expect them to come until next Wednesday.
You are heaven. Thank you.

Here

Dear followers, readers, stalkers, and even new visitors,
I have been loving all of the comments, the visitors, and the loving all of the lovin'!
Now there are a few things that I'd like to just through out there that have been getting to me a little bit.
If you follow me because you genuinely like to read what I have to say, then awesome. Super cool.  On the other hand if you are following me strictly to get a follow back then you might end up disappointed. I will probably at some point check out your blog if you are on my google friend connect. But that does not guarantee that I will follow your blog as well. I follow the blogs that I will want to read on a semi-daily basis. I'm sorry if your blog is not one of those. But do you honestly want people following you who do not want to read your content? Who have no interest in what you have to say? It's something to think about.
 Similarly, if you comment on my blog I will try to email you (if your email is enabled! So please enable it!) in a reasonable amount of time in response. Please bare with me! I want to get back to you, I promise!
I will also probably check out your blog if you comment here. I might even follow it's something that I'm interested in or might be interested in the future.
But please do not comment here simply because you want me to check out your blog.
 If you're commenting  on my post I would like it to be because you'd like to comment on my post, not because you just want me to check out your blog. Ex: "Hey I'm new here and am commenting so, please check my blog out!" or "I'm now following you so please check my blog out to follow me too!"
Because guess what? That will make me not want to check out your blog.
I like getting feedback on my actual content, not feedback on how desperate you are for followers.
I wrote a little while ago about this here. Please indulge. Here's another that I wrote last year about struggling with "follow-backs" myself.   Here's the semi-follow-up post to that.
And if you've been one of these people before (LET'S BE HONEST. I feel like  at some point all of us have gone through a stage where we were worried about our followers or following the right people before. Whether leaving desperate comments or trying to get follow backs. We were all new and once.) then no hard feelings. I won't hold it against you.
Phew, rant over.

Dear customers at the stand,
Please tip freely tonight when I go to work and you're getting your custard. Mama wants some spending money for the end of the summer!

Alright, that's it for today's long-winded letters! Stay cool and stay fabulous!

Sooooo What Do You Want For Your Birthday???

Summer is my favorite season. Always has been.

Maybe it's the ex-summer camp counselor in me who played all summer long and got paid for it.
Maybe it's because I'm a teacher and summer represents the biggest mental health break ever.
Maybe it's because I live in Maine, which is by far the best place to spend your summers. Ocean? Lakes? Woods? Hot days paired with cool nights? Can we say Vacationland? Yes, yes we can.

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But there is another reason that I love the summer.

I have a summer birthday.

And it's officially upon us.

It's my birthday month.

Now my birthday isn't until this Sunday, but in July, I like to treat everyday like my birthday. Because, you know, why not? 

A week or so before anyone's birthday a person is going to get the same question over and over again.

"Sooooo what do you want for your birthday?"

Despite the fact that I love my birthday and telling people that it's within the next thirty days, I find  this to be a pretty weird question to answer. 

Are there things that I want in general? Yes. OBVIOUSLY. 

But I feel like answering that question by actually telling them what you want is a little like this:

"Actually I want this very specific thing, that costs this very specific amount that I know because I've been looking at getting it for a while. And now that I'm telling you that I want this you are obligated to get it for me by this specific date no matter how out of budget or out of the way it would be to get this specific thing for me. If you don't get it for me, we'll both know that it's what I asked for and you didn't get it for me anyway."

So yeah I find it a little weird to answer this question.

Do I actually tell you what I want? What price range do I keep it in? Did you already get me a gift and are poking around to see if you got me the right thing? This could get AWKWARD.

So you know what I've decided to do? I'm going to answer this question ahead of time.
Right here. Right now.
I'm going to tell you all what I REALLY want for my birthday.

WHAT I WANT FOR MY BIRTHDAY

A House

When I say house I mean mansion.

I live in an apartment. Which is fine and works for right now.

But if I'm asking for things, I would like you to buy me a house for my birthday. I'm going to want to settle into a permanent space soon and houses are expensive, so if you're just willy-nilly offering me things I would like a huge home that has so many rooms I don't know what to do with them.

Preferably this mansion on the ocean. 

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An Obnoxiously Large Dog

I already own a dog, the cutest and most awesome one in the world. And we were waiting to get a second dog until we were renting a house or owned our home. (See above entry.) BUT HEY, I really want one so I'll have you get me one.
 I'm a big dog kinda gal. I've always wanted one.
We ended up getting Bruin who is maybe 40 lbs when it's a fat jeans kinda day, which is a great size for an apartment. And the plan was to rescue some awkward shepherd/lab/wolf mix from our local shelter, but if you're getting me a gift, then a purebred Great Dane or Irish Wolfhound would be great.

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Save up, they are hundreds of dollars.
And if you have extra money, then I'll take that weird looking hundred pound mix from the shelter too. Because once you have one dog, what's another 2 right?

Free Passes for Whatever Substitute Teacher I Want
Let me explain.
As a middle school teacher getting a sub for either a scheduled or unscheduled absence is hard.
Getting a good sub is near impossible.
This makes calling out sick a  pain in the neck. I have gone into school barely concious and barely awake because I hate planning for a sub and coming back from a sub SO MUCH.
 I would like the option of choosing anyone in the world to be the substitute for a day a few times this upcoming school year.
This person would read my sub plans and actually try and execute them, be firm and fair with my students so they don't get away with junk just because there's a sub, and not leave me notes with the names of almost every student as a trouble maker. Oh, I'd also like my classroom as clean as I left it because we all know I guilt cleaned the night before and I should reap the benefits of that too.

I feel like this guy would be first up on my list.

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I bet he would pity the fool that tried to tell him they had special permission to wander the hallways during class.

 Private Island and Unlimited Airline Reward Points

When I needed a break from my mansion on the ocean, I would like to visit a private island of my own. You know with lots of sun, a big beach, another mansion, and a hammock. Oh and mojitos. Lots of mojitos.
Also flying is expensive so if you're getting me the private island,  I'll need some sort of giftcard that gives me free air miles to said private island. I mean it's only polite.

Lifetime supply of Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts Coffee On Call At All Times
At the stores.
In my house.
At school.
A traveling cart that follows me whereever I go?
I don't know. I want to me the most awake person ever.
Best birthday gift ever.

A Willow Tree

I dunno, I've always thought willow trees were super cool. And I'd like to read any birthday books I receive underneath it. So yeah, I think I'd like a willow while you're asking.

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World Peace

I don't even know what this would be or look like.
But it sounds good, so I'd like to have it for my birthday.

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I guess that's a good place for me to end my list.

Listen, when it comes to stuff for my birthday, my favorite gifts are the ones that other people pick out for me. The ones that they go, "Man this _____ is so Tricia. Totally getting it for her." Or, "OMG she mentioned she liked these once when we were hanging out!"

Chances are, if someone is actually getting me something I'm going to be flattered that they even thought to get me anything at all. Someone could give me a branch off of a tree in my front lawn and I'd be pumped.
You know, because it's my birthday.


And if people still want to ask? I'll just send them to Dave. I drop hints to him allllll the time. :-)

Let's Talk About Linus

So I dropped my blog a little bit in the fall and then suddenly picked back up in the Spring.
During that time a cat named Linus mysteriously appeared in the mix of things.

This is me finally getting around to the story of how Linus joined our little family and became one half of the world's most confusing and adorable bromance of all time.

I've never really been much of a cat person. I mean, enjoy cats and will play with them but dogs are just the best.  And cats aren't always looking to be my loyal and unfailing best friend. Plus cats aren't always super great at doing circus-like tricks. Hence, the whole dog-person thing.

I've always had a cat growing up,  but didn't really have an inkling to get one anytime soon.

And then this guy followed me into my apartment.

He was a thin black cat with a torn-up collar that had clearly been choking him. He obviously was recently adopted and a well meaning family put a toy collar on the cat and let him loose. He tried to rip it off which just made it tighter.

Naturally, I had to take him in and give him some food and take the collar off that was choking him.

His name tag said his name was Sirius and he made himself comfortable in our apartment.

We kept him for the night because we didn't know if he was an outdoor cat or not and wanted to make sure he went back to his right home.

Oh, and Bruin loved him.

Followed him around, gave him kisses, tried to share his toys, and all other things dogs do to show love.

We found his family of young children the next day. We talked to them about the right collars for cats instead of using toy ones especially for an outdoor cat, what they were feeding him, making sure they kept tabs on him in general, and kissed him goodbye.

Bruin was sad. He whined and whined and whined out the window as Dave handed over the perfect little black cat to the kids from next door who had identified them as theirs.

So I mean....my hands were tied.
 It was out of my control.
We just had to get our dog a cat.
(This is all normal right? People get their cats as pets for their dogs all the time right?)

After making some big eyes at Dave while hugging the dog, we ended up at the local animal shelter two days later. While there were many kittens just weeks old, there were a couple that were 3-4 months old that caught our eye.
There were a few that we liked but Dave got attached to one in particular that wouldn't stop crawling all over him. Because that's how boys fall in love.

This was him the day we brought him home.

I had heard the local pep-band playing "Linus and Lucy" on a run a few days before so you could say the name was stuck in my head. We named him Linus and brought him home.

Bruin was obviously interested in this second feline that we brought into our home in just a week.
And Linus was interested in the little polar bear that kept following him around.

They got along pretty well that first night. Lots of sniffing and noises being made. They were friendly.

With that said, when I got home the next day from work and laid down on the couch for a little nap, this happened.

That's right folks, this is just after one day. 

You can just take a minute to set this as your new desktop photo.

So, there it is, the story of how Linus came to be a part of our family.
Linus and Bruin are now besties.
Bruin cleans Linus's ears on a nightly basis. Linus eats Bruin's food when he feels like it and sometimes even shares his own. They chase each other around the apartment, watch birds out the window, wake us up in the morning, and get locked in the crate together when they just get too excited over company.
Of course they still cuddle on the couch with each other because they're trying to break my iPhone memory.

Also, they keep eachother company when we're gone. (This is literally how I left them one day on my way out to school. I HAD to take a photo.)

Like I said, a bromance that will go down in history.

A cute little end to this story is that Sirius is still around. He is officially a neighborhood cat and has grown rather attached to the neighbors downstairs.
And during one of his daily visits to our yard guess who he got to meet?

So am I a cat person now?
No, not really. I would still categorize myself as a dog person I guess.
BUT,  I guess you could see it like this:
I'm a dog person whose dog is definitely both a "cat person" and a "dog person". (Shhh Bruin still thinks he's human. It's just easier that way.)
And I'm also a dog person who owns a cat that's a "dog person" too.  :)

Have an awesome day, and go hug your pets for me!

Friday Letters

Time to write some letters!

When I was writing these little notes all I could think about was Jimmy and his Thank You Notes on Late Night.

via

So please just imagine his Thank You note background music playing and me giggling as I write, because that's essentially what he does.
And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, google it and enjoy.

Dear  Humanities Units and other paperwork from school,
Please organize yourself into those 1 inch binders I bought last summer.

Dear deoderant,
I'd like you to make your best effort to last more than oh, I don't know 4 hours in this heat. Just because it's  humid doesn't mean you need to stop working.

Dear Coffee,
Thanks for being such an great friend.

Dear Nails,

I've been painting you a lot. Mainly because I'll paint you awesome colors and then you'll start chipping and then there's paint left staining my nails so I feel compelled to paint them again. (And no I haven't tried that cool thing from pinterest that gets rid of the stain, chemistry scares me.)
Which is all well and fine, BUT STOP CHIPPING SO SOON ALL THE TIME!
I feel like just when I get used to how awesome you are, you chip and then I look trashy and then I spend 3 hours painting and repainting you because I'm like a baby elephant trying to paint its nails which is exhuasting.
So if you could chip less, that would be awesome.

 Dear Customers at my summer job,
You are about to eat something really delicious. Why are you sometimes so angry about it? When I am out getting ice cream or frozen custard no one can ruin my day because it is officially awesome.
But man, some transactions that I have are just downright aggresive. Do you see where you are? Did you know there are mini-goats out back to look at? Do you understand how delicious your frozen custard is about to taste? Do you know who I am? HAVE YOU SEEN HOW COOL MY NAILS LOOK TODAY?
Turn that frown upside down, order something with some rainbow jimmies on it, and enjoy yourself. And if you are going to be rude? Please be loud about it so the person in line behind you will give me a pity tip.

 Dear Bruin,
 I know the fan is scary but sitting next to or behind it will not help you cool off. Sit in front of it. Also, cuddling with the cat is not going to make you cooler. Give each other some space eh?

Happy Friday Friends!