I posted this ages ago. It was about how P and my mom came all the way to Camp Arifjan, where I worked in Kuwait, and surprised me with a Johnny Carinos canolli and a crown for being “Employee of the Month.” It seems sort of silly when I look back on it now, but at the same time, when I look back on it now, it touches me even more.

For one, I hated my job experience in Kuwait for a long time. If any of you have read my blog from those days you know I had a hard time. It was so sweet when they came up to my work and surprised me with such a thoughtful gift just to show they loved me. Also, getting onto Camp Arifjan is a giant pain in the ass. Yes. I said it. Ass. Because it is. It really is, and there’s no way around not cussing because it’s THAT much of a pain. Anyway- it took a lot of time driving there, waiting to get to the gate, having your car searched, getting fondled in the 100 plus degree heat, and then getting to my office. That alone shows the thought behind the gift. What a nice gesture. I’m a really lucky girl. 

P eats with me.

Like eats.

Girls are annoying. We really are. We don’t eat in front of other girls ever! Because that would mean that we had no mastery over our hunger and that we really don’t survive solely on coffee and Orbit Sweet Ming gum (ha- see yesterday)!!

That’s what I love about me and P. We have lots of healthy moments, but we also have a lot of ravenous manly beast-like moments- especially during special occasion weekends like P’s upcoming birthday weekend! Do you know that this past May when we went to Beavers Bend we literally had smores for every.single.meal. the entire weekend? It was amazing. We are also known for killing an entire medium Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza in one night. And then there’s… well… I think you get the point. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that we DO eat healthy. Haha. Oh- and if you’re wondering- yes, we already have our entire gastronomy planned for the entire birthday weekend. But you probably already figured that. 

The girl goes through Orbit Sweet Mint gum like I’ve never seen.

She’s got a real problem and a bad habit on her hands- she’s up to four packs a day!

I’ve considered an intervention, but, well- have you had Orbit Sweet Mint gum? 

P and I have the best emails and text messages back and forth. We hardly ever write more than a paragraph at any given time and continually exchange short little blurbs back and forth throughout the entire day.

It’s like a Christmas present that I keep getting over and over.

It always makes me so happy to see an email from her. We can literally talk back and forth like this for 10 hours a day via email or text message and never get bored and still have tons of pithy and hilarious things to talk about. Oh guys- do I have some hilarious doozies I could share, but the truth is that if I did share them it would be pretty embarrassing so it’s probably best I do not. Maybe one day I’ll clean some of them up and post a thread or two. Fun times. 

During the Summer of 2004 I was a newly married college student. That summer I was taking one class and working at the university- which was only like a 30 hour a week job. Put it this way- I had lots of time on my hands. This allowed me lots of time to hang out with P.

For some reason that summer we thought it would be fun to take up tennis. Let’s keep in mind that neither of us have all that much athletic ability. Sure, P was a cheerleader, and yes I work out at the gym- but please let me assure you, that does not convert into athletic ability. Will is always trying to get me to play basketball with him, and I’m just pitiful.

I’m getting off track!

Anyway- because we were so awful we would go in the middle of the afternoon, the height of summer heat and misery and pain, so no one would see us. I’m surprised neither of us suffered from heat exhaustion, really.

We would stand on opposite sides of the net and P would serve and it would hit the net and bounce back to her feet.

Then she’d serve and it’d fly over the net and I’d be swinging in the air on the left side, when the ball was on the right side.

Then I would try to serve and it would go flying, or it wouldn’t pass the net, or it would go into the other court.

We were awful.

We volleyed back and forth a few times- in the course of the whole month we devoted to tennis- but that was the extent of it. My mom and Will would occasionally go with us in the evenings. Will would try to play with us, but unfortunately he has no “off” switch. He is always in competitive game mode, out to win. He had fire in his eyes, and I swear had he been bald I would have mistaken him for Andre Agassi. So while me and P just wanted someone to gently hit the ball back and forth with us, Will was out for war. He wanted to hit the ball hard, he wanted to win, he wanted to make us hate him. He would frustrate me for not just freaking playing “nice” and I would frustrate him for chasing after the ball nonstop and not being able to hit anything. Fun times. Hmm, maybe this Spring I’ll convince to give it another go! What do you think?

Happy Valentine’s Day!! <3

Ahaha the title makes me laugh. Yes, the pun IS intended. You’ll see here in a second.

P may kill me for this one, but here goes.

P had a pet broccoli named Marker.

Yes.

Broccoli.

As a pet.

That was named Marker.

Did you hear me?!

Broccoli.

As. A. PET.

I’ve known about Marker for several years now but I’m sitting here typing this and still laughing to myself.

No wait.

Out loud.

I’m laughing out loud.

It’s just that bizarre.

Marker was a tiny broccoli stem that my sister housed on her windowsill. You know, because everyone knows that’s the perfect spot for a dog broccoli house!

I can’t prove it, but I think there was even a possibility Marker had a posse of other tiny vegetable friends to include Carrot, Green Bean, and Parsnip.

I’m almost positive P cried the day my mom threw Marker away. You would have thought an event like this- an event in which you found out your young daughter had resorted to keeping a small foodstuff as a pet- would lead you to think, “Hmm… maybe we should get a dog after all…”

However, that did not happen. We didn’t get a dog for years later. Huh…

P has excellent music taste. I tell her all the time that she should totally DJ on the side. If you’re throwing a party, you want P to be the one spinning.

She is always so thoughtful and sends me lists of music that I should download.

It keeps me young.

In fact, several years ago P was the one that introduced me to trance music- and Tiesto.

Tiesto… ah that was during my blog hiatus. We actually went to a concert. I so wish I would have posted about that! We went on Halloween of 09. It was amazing. He started spinning at around 11 that night and didn’t stop until after 3. Best.Concert.Ever. I owe it all to P!

P was a big Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen fan back in the day. Although- who wasn’t in the mid 90s? They were so darn cute!

I remember after Full House they ventured off on their own and did their own video series which was BRUTAL for my young teenage self.

I remember babysitting P one time and having to sit through one of those movies and watch it over and over and over. I also remember one in which they sang about eating broccoli and chocolate.  Yes. Together. Who does that? I’m pretty sure I fell asleep during that one. I was lucky I didn’t wake up with a permanent marker mustache or frozen panties.

I was a very reliable babysitter. 

I remember way back in the day, when I used to wear loafers and giant bangs, I would come home from grade school and my mom and sister would be there waiting for me every time I got home.

P would be so happy to see me. Like a cute little lab puppy, only yappier (haha, just kidding P). Like every time it was though it was the first time I had ever been away from her and she was excited to see me and hear about school- a place she had little concept of at the time.

We would sit at the counter and have a snack and talk, and then I’d start on my homework. I just remember how nice it was to come home to my family every day and feel like it was a party each time I got home. <3

Do you guys remember what life was like before PS3, and Wii, and all that other interactive virtual reality goobly goo?

Haha, sorry about the “goobly goo.” It seemed like the right thing to say. Let’s move on.

Anyway- before all that “goobly goo” on the market, we didn’t have games that could gauge our movements, or remotes we could use as bowling balls. We actually had remotes connected to a video game system and we had to sit stationary to play them. Ah the good old days…

Well during the height of my childhood, the Super Nintendo was king. Do you guys remember that? How could you not!? Super Mario Brothers was the coolest thing since snap bracelets and NKOTB!

Well I like to consider myself a “guru” of the game. A professional, if you will. Much like Barbies (Ahem, see Day 5). I didn’t need a pesky four year old bothering me while I was “gaming,” you know? So- in order to make P feel like she was playing and part of the game, I would put it on two player mode. Only- instead of plugging in the other remote control, I would only use mine, therefore making me both players.

I would give P the other remote and tell her how GREAT of a Mario player she was. Better than me! “You just beat Bowser, P! WOW!” And she bought it.  And she felt like a million dollar bucks because she kicked my butt in Mario Brothers.

Ha.

Being a big sister definitely had perks.