oh my gosh

i'm trying hard not to type in list mode today since i did that monday, but that's really just how my mind is wired. i like the organization of lists. eek. i will try for paragraphs.

first, i have a story about yesterday. it's called, 'cars are the literal bane of my existence, and i would instead like a moped to ride around marion.' it's a long title. but i think it really captures the essence of what i am about to say. i was driving home from work, and a couple of friendly-but-rather-overzealous people in the car next to me managed to indicate that i had a flat tire. you may recall the (hey, miranda and heather, i am about to post a link here!) incident i had in june. so imagine my frustration at hearing i was having more issues with ron's tires.

well, i quickly pulled over (ironically, it was a kfc parking lot) and got really mad at ron swanson and the world in general. that quickly petered out (i mean, it's really not useful, so what's the point?). and then i called a bunch of people to try and figure out what i should do. my friend, andy, came and helped me think clearly.

we drove slowly to a gas station across the street and filled the tire with air. then he led me to his tire place. they were super awesome. they pulled a screw out of my tire, patched it, and had me ready to go in about five minutes. and it cost me $10.70. i can't say enough about how cool they were.

so the tire situation is fixed. phew.

second, i am struggling at waking up when i am supposed to. as a result, i ate chips and salsa for breakfast.

third, i am reading bryan allain's '31 days to finding your blogging mojo.' not so much because i have great aspirations for this blog at the moment (turns out grad school is a blogsuck), but because i like bryan allain and it was $4.99.

30 by 30 update: avoid the tornadoes, and you'll be all right...

so. i should have posted yesterday. i had really good intentions. but frisbee ended up taking much longer than expected because we waited out a storm in our cars. don't you worry...we won. oh...that wasn't what you were worried about? also, no one got hit by lightning.

i don't have much of an update regarding my 30 by 30 list...i thought i would get a lot done this summer, but i am busy as crap. so we'll see.

1. i am still taking classes for another month. should be wrapping them up around my birthday. just two semesters left after that.

9. miranda and i DID actually go on a road trip to indiana...and we had several crazy adventures, documented here and here. but as she pointed out, we don't really want that chaos to be our documented road trip. so this one is both technically done and not at all done. are you following?

11. this was my monthly cooking segment, and looking at the picture again is making me hungry.

14. i got a different car! i traded bj novak for ron swanson. aside from the blowout picture, i don't have any of him. miranda has the official picture. so that's forthcoming.

29. i am almost done with a handful of books, but i have this huge pile sitting on my dresser reminding me every day of how little fun reading i get to do anymore.

it is officially less than 13 months until this list is supposed to be finished. yikes! (and if you have somebody with whom you would like to set me up for a blind date, you can help me out for number 25).

oh, i did actually take some pictures of life...

so here's my sweet brother and his new wife. i love them. their wedding was beautiful and funny.

and here's my sweet best friend taking good care of ron swanson when we blew a tire on our way back to wisconsin.

and here are my sweet legs after a full weekend of frisbee. this picture probably doesn't even capture the full color difference between my feet and legs. you can also see a knee brace line on my left leg. and every place that looks like i was beaten with a baseball bat is, in fact, a bruise. those are real. and there are actually many more than you can see in this picture.

one month down

i can't believe a month of my summer is gone already. CRAZY.

i am mad busy. but it's good. working for the dollar bills (and really enjoying ye olde magic shoppe)...frisbee till i wanna puke (another tournament this weekend...i'll strive to be better about sunscreen)...homework (not gonna lie...i'll be glad to be done with these classes. they're more fun in marion. lol. i have less distractions there, too.)...and trying to hang out with people. that is a surprisingly hard task.

let's see...what else has changed in the past month...

i got a new sister.

i got bangs.

i traded cars.

yeah, i think those are the highlights.

here's what i haven't been doing:

writing.

working on my t shirt quilt.

running (aside from frisbee).

eek.

we'll see what the next two months bring.

the terrain is actually rougher on 3 tires...

our adventures were not over. miranda and i drove to marion on monday morning to get some stuff from aunt betty's house and see some super cool people. and participate in the planning phase of the wigger olympics. trust me, you're gonna want to be there for those.

we were driving back to madison...about 45 miles south of rockford...when disaster struck. it sounded and felt like the back end of my car exploded. which is not a great feeling when you're driving, by the way.

i pulled over, and we got out to see what the rumpus was. my tire was not flat. nope. it was completely jimmy-jacked. as in...shredded to pieces. awesome.

good news, though. my best friend is an expert tire changer. who knew? so she got the spare on just fine, and we made it (oh so slowly) to rockford.

our pal, rex, helped us out. i obviously had to replace one tire, but it turned out the other back tire was so old that he was afraid it would blow out soon, too. and then they told me that they tested the battery, and it wasn't even registering. they had no idea how we had even made it to rockford in the first place. (you'll recall that grandpa's car had to be jumped before going to fishers and refused to take us to the movies.)

so i had to replace two tires and a battery. that was not a cheap trip.

but i made a million memories with miranda...we weren't hurt...we came up with a name for the car...all good things.

my car's name is now officially ron swanson. (and if you don't know the reference, i demand you watch 'parks and recreation' immediately.) i'll post pictures soon.