Take A Bow

I need a new job! A real job! I'm sick of minimum wage and crappy work environments!

Silly Me for Thinking Honesty is Something Given Free

I find myself less and less able to lie when I want/have to. I've always been able to lie, totally believable every time. I suppose I should mention I hate lying, but am able to do it when the need arises. Maybe I'm tired of it. Lies take a wierd toll on my emotional balance.

It seems that lies and emotions are very closely tied, for me anyways. There is that little thrill when someone believes your lie or the dread that someone will find out you lied. Maybe I'm not cut out to deal with that. I like the care-free feeling of absolute honesty. I like telling my mom I need some "Katie time" or that "No, Becca, I don't want to shadow you while you shop so that you don't feel alone in a packed store. I don't have money or time to waste here." I think people think I get mean or catty, but that's not it at all. I want to be truthful. I want an honest life. I'm honest with everyone and I expect it back.

Are those expectations too high?

I have this list in my mind of all the pressing things I need to get done. I check them off as they are finished and it feels great. I finally got that list done when I realized that there are still things I need to do. I need to end all my lies. It kills me to lie anymore. I don't want to keep them up anymore. Maybe I'm being selfish, changing situations on people who think they have it all figured out. Sometimes, however, you have to take care of yourself first.

I Will Remember You

Hello my loves, I've just gotten back from a very long day that followed a very long trip. Try to keep up.

I left on June 27th for the U.P. of Michigan. I drove all the way up through Wisconsin with my brother, sister and neighbor in 7ish hours. That, my friends, is amazing timing. Of course, my brother refused to (but finally did) stop for our 3 ready-to-burst bladders, but I think that was just for the sake of amusement. And he was running out of gas. We spent a good hour driving up and down county (I'm not sure which) 480 looking for the cabin our family rented because my stepmom in the other car was about 3 hours behind us. I finally had to find out from a cute old couple that was walking thier miniscule dog. It was right in front of us. Poop.

We look around for a hide-a-key and then the old guy goes, "Is it open?" All I'm thinking is, "Who leaves an empty house unlocked for long periods of time?" Apparently the guy we rented it from does. It is the U.P. after all. So we break in and dibs our rooms and settle in for a few hours of teenage chillaxing before the brigade shows up. A few hours later my stepmom, little brother, aunt, uncle and cousin show up to make a total of 9 people in an 8 person cabin. Not too bad right? It'll get better later, trust me.

The next day everyone gets up at the crack of dawn for breakfast. I'm not quite sure why because it's vacation and I just assumed sleeping in was a prerequisite of not being at home. It's all for the best because our cabin was equidistant from all the stuff we wanted to do, the only wrench in the engine of that plan is that everything we wanted to do was at least an hour in any given direction. But I digress... We all pack up and pile into my aunt's Excursion to go to (it's a mouthful) Kitchitikipi. It's a spring that has some kind of acid in it that prevents alot of growth so you can see straight to the bottom. There is a raft with the middle cut out of it that travels along a rope across the lake. Here, take a look.

I took a video of it, but I have to wait for my stepmom to email it to me, I'll be sure to post it because I thought it was beautiful, maybe you will too.

Throughout the trip we visited a few waterfalls, but by far my favorite was (another mouthful) Tahquamenon Falls, particularly the lower falls. Although the upper falls are beautiful, the lower falls are more entertaining because we swim in them. You go down to the concessions and rent a row boat to take out to die island and from there we walk to where we get in. It's so much fun to walk out to the falls and climb through into this little, natural, wet shelf behind the water and be invisible to everything outside. We just crawl down to the bigger fall and jump out and slide down the river a bit. (I did convince everyone with me that I lost my bottoms when I jumped out). Brilliant. It's nature's little waterpark.

We go into the falls on the right where they aren't so huge. If you were to walk around the island there are another set of falls that you can climb up, then on the left are the bigger ones that I did climb down a few years ago, but not this trip.

My brother was driving us (Me, Becca, my neighbor) to get the fireworks on our way to see Hancock and nearly rolled Trailblazer with all of us in it. Miraculously, a nice Yooper with an F-250 pulled us out and then refused the money we offered him. We subsequentally picked up $500 worth of fireworks and saw our movie.

I did some shopping while I was up there and I purchased some, let's say, interesting items:

• One 118 year old Swedish bible. It has a picture of Martin Luther in the front so I'm assuming it's not the Catholic bible.
• A ceramic, although I originally thought it was wood, squirrel who I name Mr. Nuttington and was subsequently renamed Professor Nuttington. He had a Wii accident and had to be glued. Darn Uncle Larry.
• A Claddagh ring that I, as an Irish woman, was in desperate need of. It's on my right hand facing out, just in case you were wondering boys. wink wink.
• These awesome old sewing patterns that I found at an antique store (pretty much a barn full of old stuff).

Today, I did something somewhat stupid. I might have created a small fire. Maybe. I was preheating the oven for my cousins I watch and I didn't realize that my uncle stores stuff in his oven. Mostly cookie sheets and glass cookware, but the killer was a plastic platter. It caught fire while I was in the bathroom and when I got out the oven was spewing smoke. I got the kids and the dogs out of the house and called 911 and my uncle (who didn't answer) and waited.

The kids were so excited, they waved the firemen over and weren't scared at all. The firemen were really friendly too - petting the dogs, giving the kids stickers- I was impressed. All the neighbors came over to check on us, or find out what happened more likely. I sent the kids over to my house with my sister while I cleaned up a bit. The firemen tracked soot everywhere. The only damage was to the oven itself so that was good.

All in all, the last week and a half has been long and dramatic and I'm happy to be home.

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I'm such an idiot.