Long Weekend!

You remember in high school when a weekend meant that you spent Friday night eating out and watching movies till all hours? I miss that. Lately the weekend has meant that I sit on my couch numb the exhaustion from the nothing that I've been doing all week.

But last night Robin, Laura, and I went out to Chili's and rented more movies than it was feasible for us to watch in a single evening. And even though I slept through most of the first movie (which had the benefit of making me awake enough to watch the second) it was a lot of fun.

Today, I woke up at nine. And ten. And eleven.
At that point Robin was already up and outside watching her boyfriend's father put together our lawn mower. We tried to do it ourselves, but the pieces didn't seem to be fitting together.

Our lawn has been pretty bad. We had a visit from some official looking lawn inspector person. He informed my roommate that most people keep their lawns under two feet and that we should too. She mentioned that we were working towards that goal.

We're fairly certain that the wicked witch of the west is living next door to us. She watched us from her window and complains about everything from where we park to the fact that we let the puppy play outside. We're pretty sure she called the lawn inquisitor. If our lawn was not so very terrible we would have let it keep growing a while, just to spite her. As it is she's going to think her call made a difference. We find that upsetting.

The upside is that now we can use the fire pit in our backyard. We're planning on having a bonfire tomorrow night. So, if you're our friend, you should come on up and roast a hot dog and marshmallows. If you're a stalker, we'd just as soon you didn't.

Being the boss

All job applications have a section where they ask if you've ever managed or trained anyone. After this summer I'll be able to say yes. That's right kids, I'm getting my very own summer intern!

At first it was just going to be the summer help taking a few of my non-design tasks, butI started talking about some things I could show them how to do and some of the things I'd like to have time to do better...all of a sudden I had an intern.

I'm excited!

Spring Concert

I designed this, well clearly for a spring concert. I spent most of the morning with my head in my hands because I couldn't think of anything and I kept getting interrupted. Then I browsed around some of my favorite design websites for ideas for a while and eventually this happened. I think my boss would have preferred that eventually come a little quicker, but spiffiness takes time.

And to give credit, the flowers and some of the brushes came from BittBox, which may be my most favorite graphic design site.

Random Reunions

There are usually a few people I know I'll see when I visit my parent's church, but this Sunday there were several extras. Most notably Brad, a friend who joined the Marines after highschool, was in town. I haven't seen him in several years so it was good to talk a bit.

After church we went to lunch at Bravos where we were squished in between two crowded tables. I have a phobia of being too close to people I don't know. My hair was brushing the back of the man seated behind me. It was awkward. I made it more awkward by being really whiney about it, but management took the problem seriously and reseated us.

Towards the end of the meal a girl came up to our table and said, "Oh my gosh, hi!" and for a second I had no idea who it was. I quickly realized it was one of my good friends from, gradeschool-highschool. Holly and I used to hang out with Tiffany and her sister, Tasha, all the time. Holly's been trying to get in touch with them for over a year with absolutely no success. She heard from a cousin that the whole family is moving too Texas soon, so she was even more frustrated.

They don't even live in the area anymore, but they happened to be meeting family there for mothers day. My friend said, "We were talking about you guys and how much we missed you and I was staring at you and all of a sudden I said, 'Wait, that is Melody!"

It was really good to see them again. Tasha and Holly were best friends in highschool and Holly couldn't stop grinning the rest of the afternoon. She's getting together with Tasha tommorow and hopefully we'll all be getting together before Tasha moves this summer.

So, that was our excitement for today.

Daniel

My little brother is nine years younger than me and five inches taller. Last summer he decided he wanted to get a job, but for a year he has been told by everyone that he needs to be at least 16. That's how he got a job at the cow farm.

Our mom thinks it's good because he'll learn responsibility. I think it's good because it will toughen him up. He thinks it's good because of the money and with his new wealth he has purchased what no game store can keep stocked: the Nintendo Wii.

Since I'm visiting for mother's day, I got to enjoy the newness of the game with everyone else. We played Wii Bowling and Mario Karts. I kind of expected it to be cooler, but it's still a good time. I'm a better bowler on the Nintendo than in real life.

This morning I convinced my brother that he wanted to go clothes shopping with me and Mom. The last time he wanted to go shopping with me he was eight and I promised him that we would stop at the candy store and KB Toys.

He'd given up a concert to have some more time with me, so I wanted him to come along rather than just waste the extra time. Originally he looked at me as if I'd asked him to accompany me to hell. But I explained that having me in the store was better than a frantic phone call about what he should buy, so he agreed to come. I think he reconsidered the wisdom of that once he was in the car, but with help from the sales guy we managed to purchase two pairs of jeans that are indelibly cool.

Our mother still has no idea why those jeans were cooler than the others. I took photos and I'm making her a chart.

All That Stuff

Saturday was fun. I took a lot of photos, had a subpar pork burger, and a massive headache from being out in the sun too long.

The best pictures are of the kids playing field games. They're adorable.

If you tell a teenage girl that you'd like to take her photograph to put in a magazine, her reaction is invariably, "Noooo! I look awful!" If you ask to photograph a teenage boy he says, "Cool!"

Yes. These girls are Amish. Yes. The girl in peach does have a cell phone.

After that I went shopping. I love to shop, but there are three things it's almost impossible for me to find: dress clothes, jeans, and purses. I'm super picky about all three. I've been shopping for dress clothes for two years without finding any that I like. Yeah. Sad. So I found a nice shirt and two purses and I felt pretty good about that.

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Today I went to Prof Davis' funeral. There was a display in the hall of photographs and of his art projects. It was really weird to see pieces that used to hang in his office and know that Prof Davis wouldn't be popping around the corner to tell the stories behind them.

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I never cry at funerals, the closest I've ever come before was at a stranger's funeral. I don't know why that made me want to cry more than my grandparents' funerals. But I definately teared up when Prof Nieter spoke. After that I half listened and half thought about other things. The screen saver playing on the projector, the stained glass in the windows, people's clothes. I've seriously never even come close to crying at a funeral before.

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I think some of the best sermons are at funerals. Maybe it's just because it's easier to care about God when we need assurance that someone we care about is with Him, but even so. The sermon was about how God is with us. I don't know, I guess at CCC sometimes we talk so much about God's glory...it feels like God is far away being great and being glorious, but not being here. I know that isn't the intention at all, but it's still how it comes out for me. Anyhow, Psalm 23 might be over used...but it's nice to remember that in all His glory...God is still the God who led David besides still waters and comforted him in the shadow of death.

True Love & Invitations

One of my good friends (and maybe yours too, depending on who you are) got married this January at the courthouse. Last week she decided she was going to have formal wedding to celebrate with extended family and friends. She also decided I should design her invitations, which she hopes to send out the first week in May.

I don't recommend waiting till the last minute to do this sort of thing. It could turn out really bad. You might be miserable and hate yourself forever. But my friend won't, because her invitations are beautiful anyway. And that makes me happy.