Aging

Here is a list of things that age a person:

• going to see your "little cousin" play drums, in his band, at a show, where they serve alcohol, and your "little" cousin is old enough to drink said alcohol, AND he has full facial hair, and the band is actually pretty damn good. oh wait...and the merch guy confirms that you probably are the oldest person there but he *thinks* one of the guys in one of the bands *might* be three years your junior but he's not sure. oh well. look at and listen to the goods here: A snippet for the interweb networking folks.
  oh, and also, he grew up to be pretty great....as a person, i mean. a man person. not the little kid person i remembered him as. he has a quality that is pretty prevalent in my family. i am going to go ahead and call it the "don't give an f" quality. we are a pretty easy going people. we just live it. thanks for coming. hope you have fun!
• Getting a virus on your computer. I swear, you would think that my participation in Facebook would keep me immune from such atrocities. I am a part of the modern age, Computer. Treat me as such! BTW, how do you get rid of a virus when it is constantly opening windows containing porn and interviews with the director of the new Mummy movie installement? You can't. You ignore it for days. You mention it to your husband but only in passing because who, under the age of 60, actually gets a virus on their computer? me. thanks. I am awesome. Oh, and Neil fixed it because he is monumentally rad and all that.
• Painting. Have you painted recently? It hurts. It hurts your body but it does help your soul a bit.
  Here is what happened. The previous owners went for the whole "neutral palette" of colors for their real estate adventure. But they were lazy and only did one coat so the yellow-orange that previously occupied the walls was still hauting me. I like yellow. I love orange. but this particular incarnation of the two colors combined made me suspicious. why are you trying to pretend you are so happy? the only way walls like that could be enjoyable is if you were sipping valium disolved in sugar water All Day Long. It's wrong. I had to paint. Oh wait....one more thing. the Entire house is painted this color. I have so much work to do.....

trying out colors:

The fireplace was the first to be painted. This is after one coat.

When you have popcorn ceilings (ack!) but aren't ready to remove them yet, you need to be kind of genius, like me! instead of taping off the bumpy ceilings, we used super thin tape at the top of the walls. makes for some very deliberate cutting. And it is important that you wear your pajamas, as well. Don't believe me? I am an expert, folks. And if you look at the picture, you will note that i am Clearly in my pajamas.

Oh and also you should have old "just taken out pony tail" hair and Never Ever wear make up!

we chose the dark brown to show off the arch.

This is our first use of no VOC paint! It covered really well and i totally did not feel poisoned after painting with it!

Oh. And we got a new couch. Neil apparently thinks it's a hit. The dogs? The think everything is a hit....especially a cool floor when it is 101 degrees out for the 46th day in a row. (actually, it was just three days but i am new so f-all, i am calling it 46).

One thing that does not make me feel old at all is that tomorrow is our 1st anniversary. Happy Anniversary to us! I took a few moments to look at all of our pictures (Anna. Thank. You. Amazing.) of the event and I am just so grateful to everyone who came out for it. I made a point on the last day of our trip to write down some of the things i was worried i would forget:

• How much John smiled during his speech
• How beautiful Kirby is
• DJ Pearly Shells
  
• Owen asking if Gorman was "A Magic Guy" and when i asked why he said "because he just appeared!"
• Duck Duck Goose
• Getting to know Beth, Brad, and Krista better
• Cole lost a tooth!
  
• Feeding the homeless kitties in Koloa
• Jason giving me permission to give the finger at my discretion in his speech
  
• Molly making me cry in the best way
• Joan kissing me so many times after the ceremony
• Marishka declaring that *maybe* John tried to kill her off the Napali Coast.

There is so much more. I just couldn't have asked for a sweeter set of memories of the greatest time of my life. And i am just really happy that Neil and i get to keep doing this for the next 49 years. oh yeah. i am giving him an easy out. he doesn't need to do life, just 50. he's got one down....