everyone’s moving to kc

amber got married!  it was three days of fun and craziness.

went to kansas city on wednesday with amber and joel, obviously I hadn’t seen her in a year so that was good!  we picked up two of the other bridesmaids at the airport after dinner.

thursday we got ashley from the airport yay!  so amber and ashley and I were together again, first time in years.  felt good, always feels good.  there’s something about people who know everything you’ve ever done, who get all your jokes.  we spray painted paper cranes blue.  the fifth bridesmaid came in thursday afternoon so then the party was complete!  we had the bachelorette party, did spa-y things, had pizza and drinks.  amber was worried we’d (well, ashley) would do something inappropriate but I I think we did ok.

friday we had our nails done and tatyana and I accidentally got pedicures, which was fun and unexpected.  then we had the rehearsal dinner, which was weird cause amber’s little brother is all grown up and in high school and I remember when he was tiny.  it was nice, because all five of us bridesmaids and amber stayed in joel’s parents’ basement which was like a small apartment and so we got to hang out a lot and spend time together before the wedding.  friday night we watched tv and helped amber pack for the honeymoon.

saturday we had a brunch and made our bouquets, amber got her hair done by ashley’s brother super early but it looked great all day long.  we went and decorated the space, hung our blue paper cranes and lights, went to the hotel and got dressed.  took a million pictures in a park (it’s almost impossible or joel to make a normal face, but I think that’s why amber loves him).  then we got wendy’s and went back to the party.

amber and joel got married and it was great.  my dad did the ceremony and ashley and I stood up there and gave awkward toasts.  we danced to Tarzan Boy.  so, one of the bridesmaids, Liz, lives in Alaska and apparently they love Tarzan Boy there, so her one request was that they play that song.  we sang it for two days before the wedding and they almost didn’t play it because people kept changing the playlist but finally they did!  it was great.   the crowd loved it.  they loved it so much that at the end, when the music was over, everyone on the dance floor was sad and some guy randomly (not even connected to us, didn’t know the joke) just started singing tarzan boy!  then everyone on the floor started singing it until they put that song back on.  it was classic.

amber and joel rode off on a tandem bike and went to greece.

an answer

questions have been raised.

hey girl, you’re back.  ecuadorian zombie dogs are a thing of the past.  have you run?

answer is unfortunately no.  I got a bad head cold that’s made breathing deep practically impossible so I’ve postponed the first run in over a year until I’m actually able to pull in some air.  I have been working on my cheering abilities, working up to the chicago marathon.  26 miles of excitement and support, coming your way.

wardrobe stretching

lately I’ve been going through everything I own, donating and packing.  I’m hoping to get a job and an apartment sometime at least relatively soon, so I’m trying to get things down to as few bags/boxes as possible. 

I’m almost done, though now I have more jackets than I do pairs of pants, a huge suitcase of basically tshirts and MAYBE a weeks worth of business dressy stuff to wear to work if and when I do get a job.  my wardrobe is definitely top-heavy.  good thing in Ecuador I perfected the art of wearing one pair of pants for a week, and here in the states I hardly sweat at all anymore so I could go without doing laundry forever!

back!

so I’m back in the US, back in my hometown, busy as ever.

I have a cold I kind of brought back with me and have been sleeping and being absolutely no fun for the past two days.  I don’t know what to think about being back.  I don’t know where to go from here, what to do exactly.  I’ve been talking to retreat groups all year about how to transfer their experience in ecuador to their lives in the states and now it’s my turn and I’m at a loss.  get a job?  live somewhere?  do something meaningful with the responsibility I have to live my life in a way that makes a difference?