Last night at dinner, the CPH raised his glass for a toast. His toast was (something to the effect of) “Here’s to new beginnings, except for us (meaning him and me). R* and N* and E* looked at him disappointingly and N* said (something to the effect of) “Everyday is a new beginning”. We all laughed, but I get where the CPH was coming from. R* and N* are off to DC, starting a new chapter in their lives. E* is moving to Florida, starting his own chapter.
And CPH and I are still here, waiting for something good to happen to us (or us to happen to something). Don’t get me wrong, we’ve still got some great friends here, and if we were having to move away, I would be just as sad about that.
And that, my friend, is the beauty of non-complacency.

Some friends of mine have this band. It’s fun music. They were just featured in InTake. They’re playing tonight at The Rock Lobster in Broad Ripple. If you want to listen to fun music and see my friends, go there.
Okay?

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend. All the pictures from our trip to DC and back can be found here.

I wish you all could have heard R*’s scream for glee when the CPH showed him this picture. That boy is a salad fiend.

R* looks like he is getting caught smoking his cigarette. This was on our walk back from a nice little Thai restaurant.

A few of us stayed up fairly late on Sunday night and played The Farming Game. Have I mentioned how fun this game is?

This is at Ben’s Chili Bowl. It was yummy. I had a chocolate shake and a chili dog. I felt like a true Washingtonian. Or is it DCist? Notice Nathalie’s shirt. She got soooo many comments on this shirt that she had to zip up her sweatshirt. Did she really expect anything different?

An amazingly fantastic picture that the CPH took at the National Gallery of Art.

Rod trying to steal the CPH’s Canadian Citizenship.

Can you see the annoyed look on R*’s face. The person on the left of the picture is N*’s sister. She came along and helped. She was quiet. And very tall.

I remember, quite clearly, my friend S* sitting beside me in the passenger seat. She was reading from a book by Eudora Welty and she told me that when reading Eudora Welty, the reader must always adopt this strangely lovable southern accent.
Last night, at a party at Kipp’s house, I pulled out a book by the aforementioned Ms. Welty and handed it to my friend Kyle. I told him he had to read it in an appalachian accent. He refused, but did read it in a southern accent. A strangely lovable southern accent.
Soon, the room was filled with midwesterners wanting to try their hand at reading Ms. Welty in her native tongue.
Afterwards, we pulled out Many Inventions by Rudyard Kipling and tried our british isles accents. That one didn’t last very long.
But it was a fun party game, if only for one round.
Speaking of fun games, the CPH and I were introduced to The Farming Game this weekend and I absolutely loved it.

Tomorrow, the CPH and I are driving up to DC with R* and N* and N*’s little sister. We told them we wanted to help them unload many years worth of stuff into a basement apartment. The plans have been made and the girls (in a minivan) are following the boys (in a U-haul) and then we’re all heading back in the minivan (they’re coming back for a few weeks of visit time with the family before they move far far away.
I’ve been wanting to write a post about these kids for a while now, but everytime I sit down to do it, I get frustrated by my inability to express my feelings.

R* has been in school with the CPH for the past two years. Both are (almost to the end) getting their master’s degree at a place that was not their first choice, but both are feeling grateful that they ended up at a place with professor’s that care so freakin’ much. I don’t remember my first real meeting with R*. But I do remember finding out, near the beginning, that R* enjoys a smoke every once in a while and I distinctly remember how excited I was to finally find a smoking friend in my new hometown.

N* is a doctor. She JUST became one a few weeks ago. I don’t remember the first time I met N*, but she says it was a fast greeting. We were on the way out to a movie and she was just coming into their apartment. What I do remember is the first time we went to Hollywood Bar and Filmworks. I remember sitting outside the theatre on the smoky black couches and N* and I were talking about normal things and I knew she was studying to be a doctor and I didn’t feel intimidated by her. She was just a normal girl who liked to look at blood and guts (but not vomit). The SMWB, in a email just now about someone else, said “i like it when people don’t assume they’re terribly interesting and are upfront about it. it’s relaxing”. That’s how I feel around N*. Relaxed.

We’ve hung out a lot with R* and N* these past two years. When they went away last summer, I was sad and I missed them like crazy.
Its just been in this last year, I guess since they came back from summer vacation, that I’ve started to consider R* and N* our good friends. You know the kind. The kind that you want to see more than once a week. The kind that you’ll drop other plans with other friends so you can see them instead. The kind that you’re willing to drive 9 hours to help them move in.
The kind you wish you would have had more half price margarita nights with.
You know the people who you can hear and see in your head at all times. N* with her hands stretched out in frustration, screaming about something insignificant. That’ll always be there. R*, when he gets embarassed by something that N* says, his head in his hands saying “oh dear”. Can’t get that out of my head.
Sheesh, I’m going to miss them.

As I walked out of the house, leaving for Bloomington, I turned and saw my camera but decided against bringing it along.
Regret #1.
I held on to two tickets which were bought but no one took ( the CPH and Kipp couldn’t make it). I should have walked into the streets and evangelized the hell out of this show.
Regret #2.
Halfway through the show, Kyle (famous artist, yippee) and I moved down to the front of the theatre. And we danced.
Boast #1.
At the very last song, Kyle got enough nerve to take one of my flower pins and throw it at Rachel’s (filling in on Keyboard and Accordian) feet.
Boast #2.

Ever see such a great movie that as soon as it’s over you want to walk back into the theatre and see it again?

Yeah.

I’ve been trying to post from Flickr and it’s just not working. But it’s not working in a very non-sensical way.

Sometimes, I get so frustrated by programs that are supposed to make things easier.

Here’s a photo I took this weekend.

I like this picture because it reminds me that sometimes when we look closely, things look all fuzzy and confusing. But if we look beyond the confusingness of that exact moment, we can see things pretty well.

Whilst thinking outloud about my eschatology beliefs, I feel a bit like Eleanor admitting to Iris that she is a silly woman for belieiving that she saw the Devil in Brother Justin.

What was I thinking that I would still conciously exist after dying?

I am a silly woman.

But I promise I won’t tell anyone, for fear of you hitting me over the head with that big heavy oar.

The SMWB told me something tonight. He said

You gotta love family.

And I know he meant it, after hearing about a nearly five and a half hour conversation I had with a family member today, sarcastically. Much like one would say, after throwing up from eating a McDonalds burger, “you gotta love McDonalds”.

But I still think he speaks wisely, even in his sarcasm.

So I ask: How do you love someone you want to punch in the face?

The SMWB emailed last night as he was looking for plane tickets to come visit me and my CPH.
He reserved his seats today. Huzzah!

And H* and N* and M* are coming up that weekend too. Double Huzzah!

Memorial Day Weekend is going to kick ass. Just you wait and see.

Me and Kipp Normand outsite Art vs. Art. I can say his full name because he’s a famous artist. See?

The SMWB asked the CPH if he would be able to locate the pictures that were taken at our Wes Anderson Film Festival Party we threw a few years back.
He did and you can find them here.

At the end of the night we gave a prize to the best dressed female and male character. You can see them both in this shot ( A* as Margot (when she ran away to find her real parents) and S* as Dudley).

Art vs. Art turned out not so fun as I watched my friend’s smile turn to a frown when he found out that his piece didn’t even make it to the competition (the art had been voted on before that night and only the top 20 or so actually made it). We made it into an alright night as we stood outside the venue taking pictures of friends taking pictures.

This is my friend, P*. P* grew up in the same town that I did, but when he talks about growing up there he adopts this horrible eastern kentucky (um, we’re in the western part of the state, P*) accent and he talks about new laws prohibiting barefootedness. He makes me angry when he makes jokes like that.

Saturday, the CPH and I picked up some pizza from our favorite new pizza place (it’s no Lupis, but it’s special in its own way). It took a really long time and we had some friends waiting (we were introducing some friends to Maria’s), but it was totally worth it. The sauce and the crust is freshly made every day and they get their meat locally.

We took the pizza back to the A*’s and ate dinner with a small group of friends who had never had Maria’s Pizza before. I’m pretty sure they were all impressed. After pizza, we all just hung out for a while. That dinner and the hanging out was one of my favorite times of this year.

Here’s the boys on the porch after pizza. I’m guessing they were either talking about Norway, Zombies, or Music.

The famous (even if voters at a silly little Art vs Art Challenge don’t think so) K* and his little friend M*.

These are the K*’s. They are super cool. They are thinking about moving away in a year which would be really sad, but could be really good for them.

A*, L* and T* making up some strawberry shortcake. Yum!

J* and M* playing in the foreground. C*, M* and N* sitting on the couch.

Ok, enough pictures. Well, almost. The CPH and I left the A*’s around 8:30 because we had tickets to go see Jon Stewart. He was fun, but I like him bettter on the daily show. Because he wears a suit and tie and he doesn’t talk about pinatas. Blegh.

Us before Jon Stewart.

If any of my readers are in the Indianapolis area, you should come tonight to Radio Radio and participate in Art vs. Art. My friend Kyle Ragsdale is competing and he would appreciate your vote.

I mean…um..if his art is better than his competitor’s.

Of course.

I guess I should also mention the open studio night at the Harrison Center for the Arts. There’s going to be 100 works for $100. And a car show! (please note sarcasm in excitement)

I’m working on some new flower pins. I want to sell them on ebay and make enough money to make more so that I can sell them at craft festivals. And then I can travel all over the states on weekends and meet lots of fun people. I’ll be like a carnie, but better. I’ll be a craftie.

As I walked, this morning, through the mine field of glasses and plates on my living room floor, I came to the realization that I really need to clean my house. It’s been in shambles for a while now but I haven’t been spending much time at home. Instead I’ve been spending time with friends drinking half-priced beers and talking about zombies over sushi and sake. There are so many great shows in our area in the next few months, I could go out at least two nights a week and come back with a satisfied feeling.
I have a feeling this summer is going to be a good one.

Last night, the CPH and I met our friends R* and N* at Hollywood Bar and Filmworks.
I consider this theatre a very close brother of the drive-in theatre. You just don’t go to this place to see a movie that you’ve been excited to see, unless the only reason you’ve been excited to see it is because while watching the movie you get to eat your dinner, enjoy an after dinner smoke, take multiple breaks and mock the movie at a respectable whisper. Last night happened to be half-price beer night which just added to the fun of the evening.
We chose The Ring Two. I had wanted to see Guess Who, but N* had admitted to me that she had already seen that for full price (did I mention this place only charges a buck for the movie?) on a day that she had to take a break from studying or suffer the consequences. Funny how that movie was an alternative to sufferable consequences.
The only other option was Fever Pitch, which we had seen at the drive-in a few weeks previously.
So yeah, the movie was acceptable for the surroundings. And the three ciders I had helped increase the scare factor. But most of all, it was great to be around R* and N*.
Have I mentioned before how much I’m going to miss those kids?

Two times this weekend – I’m sitting with friends who are in their late 20s/early 30s and they very bluntly say that they’re only looking for relationships that are moving towards marriage. I guess this shouldn’t surprise me. I mean, isn’t that the point? – To move towards marriage?
Sometimes, I forget how very lucky I am to have found the person who I’m going to grow old with. But, I don’t just get to grow old with him, but I get to grow with him. I get to create memories and history with him.
And part of me wants to make sure that you understand that i truly believe that it is possible to not have a partner and still live a happy life, but god, it sure is nice.