the single life

the highlights of my brief reaqcuaintance with the single life included:

a long overdue reunion with one miss ashley campbell.  she puts the

"a" in rak, who will hopefully be making a reunion tour for her wedding

this summer.  she's still the fun-loving, big-hearted, beautiful girl i

remember falling deeply in sister love with in the dorms nearly six years

ago.  nevermind that my face is five times larger than hers in this photo.

superdad helped me build a raised garden bed to surprise riard

with upon his return.  i found the plan on pinterest, and he made

the magic happen.  it was fun spending one-on-one time with my

old man.  we don't get to do that enough, and i had a great time.

i always do.  but it helped that he let me drill some stuff.

p.s. i ran eight miles earlier that morning.  eight.  not to mention, it

snowed the day before, and we built the bed in my garage.

then, that very evening, my darling sister, chelsa chow, had her 17th

birthday party.  it was no regular birthday party, which is why it will

have  its very own post in the very near future.

the grand finale was a return trip to the jackson hole volleyball tourney that

we had so much fun playing in last year (until jackie's car got crunched in

a blizzard).  it was just about as much fun, even though we didn't do nearly

as well.

reunited and it feels so good

does absence really make the heart grow fonder?  probably.

does it, in combination with extended periods of time and

little to no communication, make a seemingly sane girl fly over

the cookoo's nest?  definitely.

luckily richard didn't find it necessary to give me a lobotomy

when he returned.  rather, he laughed with me about - and forgave me for -

my brief bout of lunacy and then we made up for lost time...

by going bowling, of course.

plenty of fun was had while he was away, and he had a great

time, too.  however, i experienced a different kind of lonely than

what i'd expected.  i hadn't prepared myself for really missing

my person.  the one who knows the background to all of my stories

at the end of the day, and who motivates me to make more than a box

of macaroni and cheese for dinner.  three nights in a row.

good reminder of why i married my best friend...its pretty hard

to live without him.

this poor guy

married a complete psychopath.

he's been on tdy for a whole week (with a whole other week to go),

so of course i'm missing him like crazy.

we've literally talked on the phone no more than 40 minutes (total!)

the entire time he's been gone, and i've been keeping myself busy

so i don't go nuts without him (or let myself hear all of the scary noises

i never heard in our new house when he was here).  i was excited for

the weekend, knowing that he wouldn't be so busy and we could talk

for longer. so how do i use that precious talk time with my bff/lover?

i start a fight, of course.  i turn into a complete lunatic and make him

happier than ever that he's hundreds of miles from the place i am at this

exact point in time.  luckily i've got another week for the absence to

make his heart grow fond enough to be happy to come home.

home to a crazy person who will hopefully have her meds right by

the time he gets here.  why the face?

these is my words

that is the title of the book we just finished reading for book club,

i'm not just using poor grammar.  i may be my mother's child, but i have

a father, too, and his grammar ocd trumps all of the jan-isms i may have

inherited.  most of the time.

i loved the book.  loved it.  sarah and captain elliot's love story swept me

off my feet - had me holding my breath during multiple kisses and crying

at the end of the book.  i've said it before, and i'll say it again: i would've made

one crappy pioneer.  sarah would've hated me for sure. 

none of us really wanted to dress up like pioneers for the meeting, so karen

and annie made a covered wagon full of books (just like the one sarah bought),

and karen kindly shared her stock of dress-up mustaches with us.  apparently

wearing mustaches is quite common at karen's house, and i can't tell you how much

i loved that none of her family members even questioned what we were all doing

when they saw us with a little extra facial hair.  classic.  karen also made

mustache-shaped cookies.  she's the best host ever.  did i mention the noises

from the great outdoors we had as ambiance?  best host ever.

i still love book club.