sunday funsies

Today I touched the Butte.

I ate baked goods filled with cream cheese and jalapeños or sweet almond cream, made entirely of butter, flour, and love.

I watched a movie. I wandered around Whole Foods. I had meaningful conversation. I listened to a sermon on where Christianity and Environmentalism collide [shoot, that's some good stuff].

All in all? It was a good one.

to do list

I'm on vacation and I'm pretty stoked about it. OK, fine: I'm positively giddy. This is my first break since December where I don't have some assignment hanging over my head and 60 pounds of nursing textbooks in my bags...I have $1 novels from the clearance shelves at Half Price Books.

I still am approaching this break with a sense of purpose and have created this list of things to accomplish. My goal is to feel that that I have appropriately "breaked" if you know what I mean if you can catch what I'm throwing down if we're speaking the same lingo ...yeah.

• Lay in the sunshine by the lake, if you follow me on IG you knew this one
• Read a minimum of 5 novels
• Drink coffee only in the mornings, unless I want it. My point is that I don't need to drink it to stay awake! 
• Eat Amish crack...twice, but no more. I must set appropriate boundaries. 
• Spend a day in Olin alone with a picnic lunch and no phone
• Kayak before 7am
• Dance until my feet hurt at Christin's wedding 
• Hug and laugh and catch up with my Lifesign Loves
• Purchase my textbooks
• Visit Kate and eat sundaes at DeBrand's
• Shop at ClothesMentor
• Walk most nights
• Watch Star Wars if it's a rainy day
• Bake a tomato pie
• Sew Sarah's wedding present [if I finish it before their one year anniversary, I'm not a terrible friend, right?]
• Eat as much produce as humanly possible
• Go to dinner with a delightful group of people in Goshen [Goshen, are you my future home?]
• Cook for my grandparents
• Wear sunscreen and a swimsuit
• Bathe in the lake
• Peruse the countryside, windows down, music up
• Eat a glazed doughnut from Foltz's 
• CORN!
• Edit pictures
• Read old issues of Food Network Magazine
• Allow all the melanin that's been hibernating within me it's time to shine
• Find a place to pick peaches -- stop telling me they're not ready yet! I'm talking to you, every you pick stand I've looked up!
• Solo adventure to Turkey Run!
• Bake something [or perhaps I should say "some things"]
• Blog if I want to and don't if I don't

Washington, DC

I spent 10 hours in the car driving to Our Nation's Capitol and it sucked. The drive, that is. Around dusk it began to rain, and it rained for the next 4-5 hours. Do you know what it's like to drive in the dark while it's raining? You can't see any road lines because of all the glare from the car lights. Then when you arrive into the big city, you can SEE NOTHING. Plus you have a proclivity for getting lost, so that happens too.

It's a life skill for me: I get lost. I have to ask for help. I suck at asking for help. Therefore, the life skill I'm still learning is admitting I can't figure it out on my own and then asking for help. I make the stinky cheese face just typing that.

So I called MegB who knows I get lost and giggles at me because she has a superpower when it comes to knowing where she's going.

Then I arrived and we cuddled. BFF cuddles for life.

[the back porch of casa de Megan and friends]

They live right in the midst of the Capitol Building, but we didn't go see any of those touristy things. Because THEY WERE ALL CLOSED. So, we found other things to do. Things like eating, buying things, walking around, drinking coffee, laughing, and lounging at the naked spa.

On Saturday night, someone [MegB] convinced me to put in my contacts, slather my face in makeup, and go out after midnight. There was dancing and karaoke involved. Yeah, I don't know who I am either.

It was fun even though 3am Amy wears grouchy pants. 

Then I came home and got back to business studying.

Could someone help me with that skill too? 

love you people. 

5:45am

I'm on vacation.

You know what you do when you're on vacation?
1. Eat food on the "restricted list" at home.
2. Watch hours of TV.
3. Sit around and read an entire novel in one afternoon.
4. Hang out in a coffee shop and post a facebook status update that says where you are and let the people come to you.
5. Go to the city pool and ask the life guards [who are all at least 10 years younger than you] random questions. Also, float on the lazy river for a minimum of 10 laps.
6. Visit the grandparents.
7. Happy hour at Sonic? Daily. Especially if it's 100+ degrees. It is.
8. Discover the new Sno Shack. See the last part of #7.
9. Let your parents purchase all food and groceries. Holla!
10. Stay up late and sleep in. Basically sleep whenever you want.

Except, I woke up at 5:45am yesterday. Why?

Light.

And senior pictures need good light, am I right?

water, clothes, orange

I'm a water girl.

I'm also a nakey girl. Meaning, I prefer life sans clothing.

One time I spent seven hours at Spa World embracing both of these things. This was during my time in our nation's capitol.

Word.

Except when we were in the community spaces and had to wear these awesome orange outfits.
One size fits all.

Would you ever go to Spa World or any place like that?

CUPCAKES!

I'm a food snob. I'll be the first to admit it.

HOWEVER, I shall now justify my snobbery:

When you pay $2.75 for a cupcake it had better be freaking awesome.

My snobbery is equivalent to price vs quality. That sounds so mathematical, but this is a non-exact science.

Our nation's capital has a place called Georgetown Cupcakes.

Well, we HAD to go.

And we HAD to get a half-dozen cupcakes. [For $15.]

Yeah.

Chocolate peanut butter with a little ganache filling? If you insist.

Overall, these were good, but I don't know that I'd call them AMAZING! FANTASTIC! STELLAR! SUPERB! THEBESTI'VEEVEREATEN!!!

The frosting was delicious.
The cake was slightly dry and I wanted it to be a little sweeter. The former is a personal preference. The latter is a personal preference. But, I'm probably right.

Except the carrot cake, that was perfection.

10 of the [best] ways I'm weird

Continuing the trip to:

1. I'm basically an introvert. People never believe me when I say this, but I've done the test: INFP. 

• introversion
• intuition
• feeling
• perception

The last three are pretty obvious and are very strong. But the first is weak, sometimes I'm an "X" a balance of introversion and extroversion, but mostly I feel like an "I."

2. I refuse to pay for cable or internet. Cable is a time-suck [that I love with all my heart] and I only want to watch Food Network, TLC, E! and Bravo. And Lifetime when it has Project Runway's on. Oh, how I love cable. Internet is me being cheap. I go to Starbucks to use the interwebs. Someday I'm going to have to bite the bullet and call whoever the internet provider is for my building.

3. When I give massages I think about a)making cupcakes, b)singing songs, c)muscles.

4. Pineapple and black olives are my favorite pizza toppings. Thank you, MG.

5. I don't think I have allergies, but I sneezed more times at our nation's capital than I have in the past year.

6. Sometimes I over-exaggerate, but I really don't think I am in #5.

7. I remember random factoids and often know just enough to get me in trouble. My mind cannot remember everything, just part of _______________. One time I was watching Food Network and I saw an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Guy went to some restaurant and they made something that looked delicious. It was in our nation's capital. That's all I remembered, but luckily I did a google search of the show name and Washington, DC and discovered that the place I vaguely remembered was called TortillaCafe.

AMAZEBALLS. 

papusas & plantains and salmon fajitas

Hello, lovers.

If I could marry food and it would provide all my cuddling, snuggling, loving, companionship, child-rearing needs, I would. [bonus way I'm weird]

I may have had a moment while devouring this.
A personal moment.
Not weird, just facts people. 

8. One time I was telling someone about my move [from NC to IN] and how sad I was to leave MegB and he asked me if MegB and I had dated. Slightly awkward, but a time when I got to tell someone about loving a friend and being in a non-romantic relationship. Then we talked about how socially it's generally acceptable for women to experience that type of friendship, but for men it's more difficult. If I were a man [only because she's not into women and I'm not into women] I'd totally date her. 

9. I always debate and deliberate when I order coffee, but I get the same thing 95% of the time.

10. I almost bought these earrings and then decided they were too quirky. Buck-toothed squirrels?

I still can't decide if that was a good move or not.

OK, that's 10.
The list is incomplete.
You'll get more some other time.
We can blame my parents for making me weird. They're the ones who reared me. Is this a nature or nurture thing? Let's debate it.

I'd rather think about it by myself though because I'm an "I".



I think I love those earrings.
Love you people.

some people

Not just any people, but people I like a whole lot:

moi, Vv, MegB, and Dan

We all met up in our nation's capital. Now is it "capitol" or "capital"? Grammar police, please assist.

I've been debating this and have drawn no conclusion. We're not talking just about buildings, but the city of Washington, DC as "our nation's capita[o]l". [I'm going to go ahead and use the --al spelling for now.] You should know that I think saying our nation's capital is HILARIOUS especially upon repeated use. Go ahead, think I'm not funny. We all know it's a lie.

MegB is rockin' the Charlie's Angels look.

My boobs look big [according to my mom]. That's because they are big.

So, we met up at Union Station and proceeded to get stuck underground for approximately an hour and a half. Is this because our nation's capital's metro system sucks? No, not really. Is this because we love to ride? No, not really. Is this because we are not good at staying in a group? Perhaps. Is this because we went to a stop with a non-advertised broken elevator? Why yes, it is. Is this because we went to an exit without an elevator to street level? Why yes, HOW DID YOU KNOW?!?

Were we happy to have some QT? Methinks yes.

Once we breathed the fresh city air, we headed to the first restaurant we could find. It was 2pm, I'd eaten dried fruit and almonds so far for the day and Vv and Dan hadn't eaten anything. We had an average meal with HORRIBLE service, I'm talking waiting 15 minutes for the server to pick up the incorrect check kind of service.

This was one fantastic trip to our nation's capital.

We were still having fun though because, well, WE WERE WITH EACH OTHER. Duh. (-:

So we went to the 'bucks where they don't screw things up, service is prompt and the light is nice for photos.

I'm not going to drag out the visit to our nation's capital [is it funny yet?] too much longer. This means I'll be blogging for a few days in a row! WHAT?!?! OK, I'm writing all the posts now and publishing them tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day. 

Love these people.

Love you people. 

Love. 

5 faves

In no particular order five of my favorite pictures from the past few days:

[I feel a little awkward saying that a picture of myself is one of my favorites, but whatev. Judge me. (-:]

Don't worry, I have words, but I need to find time. Lots of fun happened in the DC area this past weekend! 

Love these people.

Love you people. 

Love.