okay, so i ran up to the UPS store near the office yesterday to have a package overnighted (it was too late to call for a pickup).  i walk in and briefly discussed with the gentleman behind the counter what i needed to do to overnight the package.  he hands me a form to fill out, which i immediately start doing…  as i’m bent over the paper diligently writing, he asks –

“is that your natural color of eyes?”

the reply, “yep” caught on my tongue as i thought, did he just say EYES?  is that my natural color of… EYES?  i mean, i’m used to people asking if that is my natural color of HAIR – being a redhead and all, but… eyes!? 

“yep” the reply made it’s way out as i thought, ‘yes, i’m a natural blue…’  

then it occured to me that red hair and blue eyes aren’t the most common combination – usually it’s red hair and green eyes.  ooooohhhhh!  silly me. 

“well, they’re very pretty, if you don’t mind me saying so,” he returned.

“oh, thank you” i grinned down at the form, highly amused by the whole interchange. 

haha!  never been asked that question before…  my eyes must have looked unusually bright yesterday afternoon! 

i guess i never let ya’ll know what was up with that cruise.  thanks for reminding me chris!  well, i’m not going.  basically, i don’t have enough vacation days to go, and since the office already gave me 6 days off (in advance – b/c i hadn’t actually accrued them yet) in march to go to maryland, there was pretty much zip chance they would give me another 5 days off in april (even if i did want them unpaid).  actually, it was more like, if for some freak reason they actually did give me the time off (paid or not) in april, it would basically eliminate my chances of getting time off in july to go to tijuana with my family and the youth for the mission trip.  and i really want to go to TJ this year.  i didn’t get to go last year, and i’ve been planning to go since last summer.  ::sigh::  it was a bummer decision, but it seems clear that this is where God has me at present.  i’m not totally crushed or anything.  i mean, i have my whole life to go on a cruise, whereas, i don’t know if i’ll ever get the opportunity to go to TJ on a mission trip with my [whole] family and my church again.  so, it’s okay.  life is still good, even if there are challenges to growing up.  everything is a gift. 

can i just say that i am officially not a big dog person?  i’m housesitting this week (as i mentioned in the previous post) and they have a lab puppy who’s about 6-7 months old.  and my cousin and her husband just got an older lab.  they shed like the dickens, they slobber, they stink, they nuzzle your rear, they make big messes…  i am now even more resolved in my love for little dogs.  like my silky terrier (1/2  yorkshire and 1/2 australian terrier), BG.  BG doesn’t shed, doesn’t slobber, only has a little smell a week after her last washing (which can easily be remedied by 7 minutes in our bathtub) and makes little messes only on occasion.  and i can cuddle with her.  yeah, little dogs are the way to go! 

k, this isn’t MY actual dog, but a good idea of what BG looks like – just with shorter hair and a little more chub.    she looked more like this when she had long hair, and yes, we did do the pony tail thing for awhile.  isn’t she cute?!?!

currently drinking: grande nonfat tazo chai tea latte (nonfat ONLY b/c my stomach starts a revolt when i put such a large quantity of whole milk in it…)

my family was out of town last weekend.  so i had the house and the car all to myself!  fun fun!  but i could never live by myself.  i can only handle that for a couple days.  last summer when my family was gone for a week, i nearly went mad.  even though i had people over nearly every night, i got so depressed coming home for lunch and/or at the end of the day to a quiet house occupied only by our two doggies (whose excitement to see me just didn’t seem to cut it).  but a couple days is fun. 

saturday night i took some friends to the aiport.  they are going on a cruise and i get to housesit for them/take care of the dog and cat AND *drumroll please* drive their jeep while they’re gone!  woo-hoo!!  not only do i get a car all to myself for a whole week, but it’s a NICE car!  with a CD player!  okay, so many of you are thinking, “a cd player – big whoop, andrea, get over it.”  but this is cool for me!  the car i usually drive when i get to drive a car only has a tape deck, which is broken.  so it’s nice to be able to pick out and listen to exactly what I want to listen to, when i want to listen to it, instead of flipping back and forth between klove and air1, trying to avoid getting too annoyed and hoping for a decent song to come on…  anyway, a cd player is just a convenience that i’m not used to… 

and can i just say that i love the movie Newsies?  i’ve been listening to the soundtrack and rediscovering how beautiful that music is, and how much i really love that movie.  ::sigh::  “headlines don’t sell papes, newsies sell papes”  “flash pots are shootin’ bright as the sun/ i’m one high-falutin’ son of a gun… don’t ask me how/ fortune found me/, fate just crowned me/ now a king of new york!”

oh, funny anecdote.  i was reading paz’s site/post with the world magazine picture from last week.  i chuckled at the image thinking “that was clever!  someone digitally altered/super imposed paz’s name onto all those signs!  how funny!”  i totally thought it was a joke.  i didn’t read the headline or anything. 

then

i got the real copy of that week’s issue in the mail, took one look at it and my jaw dropped!  it was real!  hahaha!!  when i read the headline, it made sense – people in spain desiring peace (‘paz’ is the spanish word for ‘peace’).  and i thought it was a joke!  haha!  silly me…

camera capers
i got my pictures back from the trip to maryland!  and subsequently, from the disneyland trip too!  wow.  those disposable kodak cameras take great pictures!  i’d been having problems with my regular/real camera.  it always seemed to blanch out people’s faces.  and being the pale irish girl that i already am, it was worse on me, and i hated it!  we finally figured out that it’s probably the flash on my camera.  the brightness of the flash and the angle at which it hits the object – we think.  so between that and not wanting to carry around a *real* camera in disneyland, i bought two disposables cameras.  what a difference!!!  seriously!  all of sudden i am WAY more photogenic then i ever thought i was!  haha!  the majority of my pictures turned out really nicely, whereas before, decent pictures were the exception, rather than the norm.  hooray for good pictures! 

caustic craters
tuesday was an interesting day.  the side of my thumb knuckle collided with my big toenail as i flipped off of my bed to answer the phone.  the result was the loss a lovely chunk of skin.  the side of my thumb now has a crater of sorts that i keep having to fill with neosporin (sp?) and cover with a bandaid.  i never realized how frequently i use/touch/brush up against that part of my thumb!  for the love!   

cumbersome connections 
THEN i got super glue in my hair!  ::sigh::  long story.  

i’m not sure if i like the idea of my hair being an auburn “bob”…..   

i got a new computer at work!!  woo-hoo!! finally!  i’ve needed one for awhile now.  my old one was horridly slow and didn’t have very much space/memory.  the new one has tons!  unfortunately though, i didn’t get a new monitor.  ::sigh::  i was hoping for a new flat screen.  anyone know of any good places to get a cheap flat screen monitor? 

oh to be 7 again…
last night i went over to raigan’s house and hung out with her and pami.  (pami is raigan’s long time friend from el paso/juarez who she – raigan – grew up with, and who i met a couple years ago)  we did the funniest thing!  we pulled out the costume/dress-up boxes, created crazy costumes, and then video taped ourselves re-enacting a scene from the movie “how to lose a guy in 10 days”.[if you’ve seen the movie, we did the scene where ben makes dinner for andi and she starts crying b/c she doesn’t eat meat, and so they go out to a restaurant and she throws a little tantrum claiming “my boyfriend thinks i’m fat!  and i can’t eat in front of him!” to the horror of the waitress and onlookers.]  oh my gosh!  it was so stinkin’ hilarious!  there were 3 characters – ben, andi, and the waitress lady.  so we filmed it 3 times, rotating characters each time so we all got to do each character.  and we changed the costumes and voices each time too!  LOL  i thought the last one was the funniest – raigan played andi and looked like little bo peep, and pami played ben and looked like a surfer wannabe with an accent that kept bouncing back and forth between surfer and black hip hopper.  i was the waitress and looked like a 1920s flapper, imitating the sqeaky voice of that lady from Singin’ in the Rain.  it was so fun dressing up and acting stupid and cracking up left and right!  what fun! 

what is it that causes us to outgrow wanting to do that kind of stuff?  it’s so fun!!

well, today was our last day in DC. and i came home with treasures galore! woo-hoo!! i spent a hefty some of moo-lah and in return, i am bringing home many many lovely things! most of them are for other people, so it’s completely excuseable, right? we rode the metro for the last time too. that was kind of sad. i really liked the metro. except yesterday there was a fire or something down farther in the tunnel so we were delayed over an hour. speaking of yesterday, let me catch ya’ll up real quick. did the washington monument yesterday – went all the way to the top! wow, what an amazing view! then my dad and brother and i went to the spy museum! that was extremely cool! i love spy movies and TV shows, so i had a great time!

last night after dinner, i went to target with tami (our host family mom). okay, targets out here in maryland rock! this one was two stories! yes, that’s right – two stories! it has elevators and escalators. and there are even special escalators that you send your CARTS up and down in! that rocked. and this target just had cooler stuff than the targets where i live. seriously. i bought more fun treasures too – 3 DVDs (hey, when they’re only $9.44…), some cool scrapbook/card making paper, and jelly beans for my brother. target is a dangerous store… “i laugh at danger – ha ha ha ha!”

today we went to the capitol to do a tour, but the line was really long for security and we had to meet mr. lorence for a personal tour of the supreme court, so we decided to not do the capitol tour. unfortunately mr. lorence was delayed, and we never connected. so my mom and i went and did our fun shopping stuff at the natural history museum and the national art gallery, and then went to see if we could catch a glimpse of the white house. we kinda did, but security is pretty tight, and they don’t let you get very close, so…so much for that. oh, saw the hope diamond in the natural history museum. wasn’t that impressed. sorry, i thought it would be bigger…

tomorrow we alight to come home. i’m rather happy. not that i’m looking forward to going back to work and the daily, ordinary routine of life, but i do miss home and my friends and my church and the warm weather. and besides, if this vacation lasts any longer, we’re going to need to join a gym here in maryland so i can get back to working out! i wouldn’t be surprised if i put on a few pounds this week! haha! i’m definitely looking forward to going out jogging again with becky next week. in shorts. and a tank top.

well, my mom is making enchiladas for the holmes. i need to back upstairs and help. until next week…

au revior from maryland!

~A

wow. i am truly on vacation. for the first time in a long time, i have had almost no sense whatsoever of TIME. i realized yesterday that for the greater part of the last couple days, i have not scanned the room for a clock, checked my watch, or been even remotely aware of the time. who cares?! we eat when we’re hungry, go to bed when we’re sleepy, stroll through museums and monuments at our leisure… it’s amazing. it really is. it’s amazingly foreign. we come from such a time sensitive and time oriented culture and world and life, that to not be aware of it is really quite incredible. i’m loving it! it’s great. i am in no hurry to end it. at least i still have 3 more full days of not caring about that dastardly thing called time.

i finished The Black Arrow in record time and started on Peter Pan. it’s nice to do just pleasure reading. remind me to buy The Black Arrow when i get home. that is a GREAT book! i’d forgotten how much i loved that book. and i marvel at how i ever got through it the first time i read it! seriously, stevenson wrote that in [very] olde engligsh which at times, confused me even now! how in the world did i ever comprehend it the first time around, when i was like, 12?! ah, The Black Arrow would make a great movie if done well! great story…

my mom and i did the holocaust museum today. very sobering. it’s incredible that people could murder and torture and be so incomprehensibly cruel to other people, just because of their race or nationality or religion. it’s astounding. utterly beyond my comprehension. sick and wrong. i really can’t find words for it.

my mom and i also did the national gallery of art in about an hour. we only had an hour or so, so we blew through it, glancing at the art we didn’t really like, and gazing a tad longer on the art that we did like. then we spent some nice time in the museum shop looking at the prints. i found a BEAUTIFUL money print that would go fabulously in my room, but the smallest one they had was poster size for $20. i would prefer a smaller one, but i might end up having to get the bigger one if that’s all they have (which it appears to be).

last night i had dinner with my friend kelley, then we went to caregroup. then hung out some more at her house. i had a great time! she and i kept discovering ways that we are very alike and it was kind of scary. as she put it, “it’s a good thing you live out west, because i don’t think covenant life (her church) could handle two of us!” haha! she’s great and i just love spending time with her… hopefully we’ll get to hang out again one more time (tonight). if she calls me back…

until next time…

all my love
~Andrea

i thought i was a fast walker.  yeah, think again.  i guess i’m usually a fast walker when i’m by myself.  but when i’m with the other 3 members of my family, i become a slow walker, due to having the shortest legs. 

walking around DC today i often trailed in the back.  i’m the shortest in the family (but not by a ton!), and have the shortest legs, so… 

we saw the viet nam, korean, lincoln, and jefferson memorials today.  the washington monument was sold out of tickets, so we’re going to go on thursday (we called ahead this time).  very cool.  the korean memorial is, in my opinion, the coolest, with it’s etchings and statures.  very cool!  and the jefferson memorial was my favorite as far as intelligence in design goes.  beautiful building and you can go underneath it and there is a gift shop and a historical timeline along one wall and other informative stuff.  although, i don’t really like jefferson much.  a deist who went through his bible cutting out anything that he didn’t particularly like.  but he had some good views on government and oversaw the writting of the declaration of indepence, so…  i guess we’ll let him stay. 

then we went to Old Towne Alexandria.  it was something of a disappointment since we thought it was going to be real historic and old fashioned and touristy (imagine that – we wanted it to be touristy!), and it was really just an old town that had been converted into a bunch of shops and places to eat.  it was okay. 

tomorrow is museum day, since it’s supposed to snow and possibly rain.  american history museum, natural history museum, holocaust museum, maybe the spy museum… 

laters!

we made it to maryland!  woo-hoo!!  the flight(s) went really quickly and rather uneventfully.  my brother and i chuckled a number of times at my daddy, who hasn’t done a whole lot of traveling lately…  still thinks you can board the flight 5 minutes prior to departure.  both flights we were almost the last passengers to board..  haha!

made it to the Covenant Life Church singles meeting with my friend kelley.  that was super fun!  it was even more fun seeing the expressions on the faces of friends of mine that didn’t know i was going to be in town! 

whoops!  gotta run!  pancakes are waiting…  rachel and steven (5 and 3) made them, with a little help from my dad… 

this family has like, hyper-high speed internet, so i should be able to post about the trip relatively often!  yay!

today we’re going to go into DC to just check in out and start making plans… 

until later…