fruit, calendars, and romance

i think there is something about a single gal that makes some people nervous. especially here. i went to get my hair cut several months ago, and when the gal cutting my hair learned that i have no children and am not married the conversation sputtered and died. she didn't know what to say to someone like me. you know, female, mid-twenties, and unattached. the horror. i'm an unusual phenomenon here. and what's really a mystery is that i am not especially concerned and not actively going out and trying to find myself a man. something must be done.

roscoe started years ago, trying to get me up to canada to meet his grandson. that failing, he tried to get us to meet here in twin. alas i happened to be out of town when the canadian lad arrived. it would almost seem as if i were trying to thwart his near fail-proof plan to marry me off.

never to fear, the next attempt soon followed. except this time my next-door neighbor is scheming. whenever someone prefaces what they are about to tell you, it usually means they ran over your cat or they are trying to set you up with someone. "you might think this is really weird, but i'm going to say it anyway. i know it sounds crazy, but..." ok, ok i'm thinking, who is he? ah, her nephew. hmmm.... "it's no big deal, just dinner, or maybe coffee," she says. dinner!? dinner no big deal, since when is dinner no big deal? i mean, it is no big deal. if it's your mom, or business, or an old friend, or even someone nice you meet. but dinners with nephews, or grandsons, you've never met seem too much.

apparently the nephew knows very little about his aunt's plot, and apparently he's coming to our barbeque with her in a few weeks so that we can be coincidentally introduced. wow. the best part is that lisa and mike, no matter what drama unfolds or doesn't, are sure to make fun of me for the rest of the summer. oh boy. something must be done.

thyroid revelations

i was flipping through some old journal entries today. i was surprised when i noticed how many times over that last couple of years i said something to the effect of how tired i felt. one entry was so short that i pretty much said, i'm tired, too tired to really write anything. that is pathetic. of course, now with all kinds of normal thyroid levels coarsing through my veins, i feel relatively superhuman. you know, pretty good. and it just got me to thinking how that's like life. when you have some problem in your life, and it's just a part of life, you don't necessarily notice that anything is wrong. the status quo is accepted, it's normal, so why complain about it or try to improve anything? maybe it was always there, or maybe it crept up so slowly that you never even noticed that anything was wrong until it became much more serious. a thyroid problem is about as easy to fix a problem as they come. just take a pill... well in this case, it's actually true. i was scraping together all my strength to function mentally and physically by the time i got around to seeking help. so thinking about dealing with scarier and more difficult problems, like drug abuse or domestic violence, for example, i can hardly imagine trying to find the strength to deal with it. there is no social stigma attatched to having to take thryoid like there is for going into rehab or jail, or being in an abusive relationship. to an outsider, the problems seem obvious, but maybe to that person it isn't so obvious that things could be better.

memorial day

today kathleen and i went to decorate the graves with some flowers from the garden. i said hello to the georges, cora lee, ruth, muriel, and william. later on today we are going to see indiana jones. hope it's good.

bright idea

so here's what you should do.... i think. takes some walking shoes and put them on your feet. have your dog leash in your left hand, ice cream cone in your right hand, and go for a nice long walk in some gorgeous, long-shadow weather. i highly recommend it. and if you don't have a dog, just skip the leash and go for the ice cream. kids will start talking to you left and right, and even adults will stare enviously at your ice cream. or, at the least, someone will smile. it's quite a nice little outing.

Stories

What makes a good story? What do you think makes a story good, or worthwhile? I love stories. But why are some stories more memorable or better than others? Is it a combination of elements that makes them good? Or who tells it? Maybe it has partly to do with why it is being told in the first place, whether for pure entertainment, humor or amazement, or for a moral lesson, or to teach us something about ourselves and other people. There are many reasons stories are told and different reasons why we like them. So while I ponder, share some thoughts on the subject if you have any, and I know you do.

erin with an i

i am erin with an i. my roommate is eryn with a y. and that is how we are known, now that we've met. thank goodness our names are spelled differently, otherwise no one would be able to tell us apart. we are both friends of the bride, and now erin and eryn have met, and are roommies for a couple of days... and as it turns out we have more in common than our common names. we both eat meat. which ordinarily would not be much of a coincidence, but in this crowd we're two of a kind. we discovered that we have some other funny similarities while we sharing some stories and pizza after the wedding.

the wedding was nice, very casual, and quick. afterwards we had a delicious vegan lunch and changed clothes to play frisbee, football, corn sack... tomorrow is breakfast with the nicki and billy and then maybe some kayaking. hopefully the weather holds out.

back east

i've gone east for a wedding. it's kinda cold for late may, i have to say. and twin is supposed to jump up all of a sudden this weekend to 93. yikes. summer (and spring together) decided to show up while i'm away. as one would expect, lisa and mike are drooling over all the plants here, which are much farther along than in twin. and lamenting the short growing season in idaho.

anyway, good trip. went to the national gallery of art today, and the air and space museum. pretty cool.

Neighbors

you know, i got to thinking... i have pretty great neighbors. and i have almost always had good neighbors (with one major exception of a man who came pounding on my door and proceeded to call me and my roommates "retarded sheep", among other things). but my neighbors these days are really great. in fact, i can think of at least a dozen reasons why. just to list a few: they had me over for elk stew, invited mike over when lisa and i were away, they have great stories, have a huge extended family and seem to know half the town, have access to horses, like camping, have the cutest kids on the planet, watch my dog when i'm away, help with yard sales, got me to go with their church group to do a ropes course... which resulted in a job offer to teach a ropes course... which i had to turn down, but it ended up introducing me to another cool neighbor. you get the picture. i just wanted to say that i have great neighbors because they have made my time in twin falls, so, so much better. there are even more, and more amazing reasons why they are such a blessing, but what i've already said should suffice to say that i have incredible people living next door to me.

Orange Meal

tonight's dinner was ecclectic, but it was themed, unintentionally. it was completely orange (and red). here was the menu: one carrot, peeled; several strawberries, sliced; bbq chicken breast; crab pieces, in shell; and gnocchi from a discount frozen package. i also had some green tea, but i felt like i should maybe have gone for the orange spice. oh well, variety is the spice of life. so it wasn't a terribly spicey meal. but it was tasty.

i have just recently had reality hit me i think. for months and months i have been busy doing the most pressing tasks before me, and as i am nearing the end of those demands, i am finally seeing beyond them. i'm thinking beyond twin falls and thinking more about what life as an ex-executrix will look like. and i can't believe the obvious. i have some more thinking and praying to do about, oh, everything. it'll be good. interesting. terrifying. but good.