It's The Little Things

i just spent the most amazing week with jon in alabama (yes, kids, i know - but it's not like the deliverance-type images you're conjuring in your heads). seriously amazing. we didn't do anything special really, just spent the week doing every-day-life stuff: driving around, visiting with friends, wandering around the beach for a bit, renting movies, and the like. and i wouldn't have changed a minute of it. everything was so... easy. like we've lived together for ages and already developed routines, and just fell back into them. so obviously, we work really well together - we have similar interests and spiritual beliefs, we both believe family is important, we are very compatible physically (and not just that, gutter-dwellers, but also things like kissing, hand-holding, lounging on the couch together - don't get me wrong, though, there are no complaints in any area...). but sometimes it's the little things that assure me that this will work. like the following conversation, which took place on the walk back to the car after lunch at a beach-side restaurant.

j: orange beach is celebrating their 25th anniversary, so there are lots of activities and things going on this week.

k: very cool.

j: and every place is celebrating. you know when we went to my store and i ran in to get my check? they had cupcakes and drinks and stuff out for the customers for the anniversary.

k: nice!

(pause)

k: wait, there were cupcakes and you didn't bring me one?

j: well, i didn't know you'd want one.

k: um, i pretty much always want cake. just for future reference.

j: duly noted. cake good.

k: unless it's chocolate cake.

j: it WAS chocolate.

(pause)

j: you don't like chocolate?? what's wrong with you?

k: no - i just don't like chocolate-flavored stuff. ice cream and cake and things. it doesn't taste like chocolate to me.

j: (nods) it's like watermelon candy.

k: what?

j: watermelon candy. if i gave you a piece of candy, you could put it in your mouth and immediately say, "hey, that's watermelon!" but if you then took a bite of an actual watermelon, they taste nothing alike.

k: you're so right! why do we call it watermelon flavor then? grape flavoring's sorta the same thing.

j: and grape-scented stuff...

see? i realize a lifetime of conversations like these doesn't sound like the stuff dreams are made of, but really? i can't wait. :o)

Officially Counting Down...

yes, i know i'm a big fat dork. please shut up. it's just that i'm crazy excited, and clearly this excitement has robbed me of my senses temporarily. hopefully, i will be able to return you to your regularly scheduled karen shortly...

Apparently, the Hedgehogs Take Their Cues From Humans - Or Vice Versa

the camp i'm working at this week is in a nature center. so to keep the kids quiet, they show them nature videos at lunch. today's selection was on nocturnal animals. this is from the part about hedgehogs:

"the male makes a curiously jerky approach to the female, accompanied by snorting and snuffling.  occasionally, to encourage her, he gives her a shove."

yeah, that sounds about right... especially around the teenage years.  :o) also, this is clearly a definition of "encourage" i am not familiar with...

From The Small Obnoxious Girl Today:

"yo, yo, yo! my name is jo*, i gots a 'fro**, i wear my pants down low. wooooooooooooorrrd!"

*incidentally, her name in not "jo"

** nor does she have a "fro"; she is korean, so she has the standard "long, black, shiny" 'do.

Why I Heart Edward Monkton

(and, sidebar: wow, have *i* been slacking... i haven't written a blog in over 2 months! and i know i've had internal monologues to share in that time. ah, well...)