fab friends, fun runs, and no news is good news

hey friends. what up?
it seems that friday nights have become my catch-up times, wherein i stay at home and do all the things i should have done the past week. or two, as the case may be. i have done the bare minimum to keep afloat lately in school. I've also spent some QUAL-I-TY time wiht great friends and fambly, so i'm not feeling guilty. just behind. i've got a packed next-ten-days ahead of me as well, so here i find myself.

alone.
in the dark.

JK! but i cam sitting at home, exhausted from chasing some kidlins all afternoon for a project from my practicum class.
so how was your 4th of july?
thanks for asking, mine was FABULOUS. and that is no exaggeration. it was the best weekend of 2009, with the lone exception of OWNING the minimarathon with beth in may.

i will now take you through the highlights step by step.


oooh, my first highlight has nothing to do with the 4th. on june 27, my two awesome neighbors shree and serena and their cousin nanette and i did the indy nite ride, where basically 1/5 of downtown is closed down for 2 hours at 11pm on a saturday night, and 2500 bicyclists ride 20 miles through the streets of indianapolis. it was SO MUCH FUN. we got there kind of early and had hours to wait before the ride began, but we had lots of fun. next year, we're playing euchre, bringing snacks (not healthy ones, if i have anything to say about it), and basically, a good time will be had by all. if you'll be in the indianapolis area, have a bike with a headlight (or do what i did and strap a headlamp to the front. classy maneuver, i know), and a helmet, JOIN US NEXT YEAR!!! i'm serious guys, it was a blast. you missed out big time. sorry, but you did.

anyway...
back to my #1 weekend. (btw, why is it so hard to come back to real life after having a life changing experience such as the celebration of the birth of an ENTIRE NATION, or a celine dion concert. )
so it all began when allison invited herself to my parents house for a couple days. i was like, "i guess...." JK! it was so fun to bring one of my grad school friends back to the mitten (with which she was SMITTEN!) for a couple days. the bummer however was the lack of good beachgoing weather. so instead of wine tasting and sunbathing, we watched gone with the wind (longest movie ever!) and played a round of pingpong. we really know how to make the most of our time :).....actually, we stayed pretty active despite the cool weather and rain, and that activity included a workout, that, though only 20 minutes long, took DAYS for me to recover from. um, no joke. i haven't done a real sit-up since probably the presidential fitness test in elementary school. which i failed miserably. shocking, i know!

allison left for g-rap on thursday, and i played croquet for the first time in my life on thursday night. and lost. to a 67 year old. awesome. that does a real number on my whole self-concept that i'd spent the past 4 years so carefully building up. in an instant, on a summer evening's dewey grass to the tune of crickets' songs...GONE. who am i and why am i here?

jeff and mary showed up for the holiday on friday. and they brought their new....SNUGGIE. that's right, jeff is the proud new owner of the famous blanket with sleeves. but there's more... I WANT ONE NOW! seriously, the snuggie is ll it's crack'd up to be, all i'd imagined, AND MORE! i could read, without my arms geting cold. in a word? amazing.

that's no lie. if i'm anything, you should know by now, i'm a truthteller
[somewhat-related sidenote: allison, you really need to take care of those split ends. i noticed]

ok, so moving on to friday. i had a GREAT time reconnecting with kristin and abby. we spent the day getting fried on saugatuck's oval beach (known in some circles as one of the premier clothing-optional beaches in...michigan? the country? 'm not sure, but the closest we saw to nude was speedos on many a man) i came home from sauagatuck very much filled up from the good time we had just hanging out, catching up, laughing, reminsicing, and being together again. we even found a dead animal for abby to point at and take a picture. the saugatuck squirrel joins the ranks of some dead fish on the ludington beach, and some beheaded seal somewhere several years ago. abby, usually up to any challenge when it involves even a small payout, would not take me up on an offer to order "hotcakes" instead of "pancakes." off the menu. i even think i offered her a whole dollar. there are some words she just cannot be persuaded to say. but hotcakes? who would have thought....?

saturday was a run slash walk with leisa and fireworks on the beach. michigan summers are as near to perfection as you could imagine.

there's so much more i could tell you all, faithful friends, but my hands are kind of sick of typing. ii have some lofty academic goals for the rest of the evening, and plans to run 10 miles in the am, bright and early before it gets to be 90 degrees. yeehaw.
happy friday evening!