If you look for them.

This morning I was cleaning up Bj’s new place and I was like, “hmm, self, wouldn’t it be nice if these boxes that go to Goodwill were gone when he got home?  How hard would that be to do? There are about fifty around here and I could Google Local it.” So I wrote out directions and got to the place no problem. But there was no visible donation center so I was sort of going really slowly in front of the building and this guy with a gruffy voice goes, “what’s up man?” in a really rude voice. And I didn’t even realize what I had been doing so I exclaimed, “oh, I’m so sorry” because he was trying to walk through. And then you know what, I think he expected a really rude remark back, so he was all nice, “oh it’s no problem.” Anyway I realized there was a drop off around back and a really nice guy helped me get all the stuff out. So I set out of there feeling very accomplished. This is when I began to have problems.

I have a notoriously bad sense of direction (and many people did remark when I was coxswain that I could steer a boat better than a car). But I was sure this would not be a big problem because not only could I just reverse the directions, but I was only 1.4 miles away!  The thing I forgot about was that going one direction the road I had to take was called Baseline, but on the way back it is called Jenkins (I know, what is up with that?). So I missed my turn. But instead of trying to short cut over, I turned around (in a restricted area, oops), and went back. But the street disappeared which was very unfortunate. The other unfortunate thing is that you are going through basically neighborhoods with lots of cross streets and the speed limit was 45 so I was getting really lost really quickly! I went next to the Nike World Campus which is of course a big landmark. The thing is I don’t happen to know yet where that is in relation to everything else in Beaverton, so I just drove past it doing 50 (FYI, there are hot guys playing soccer in the front, if you live around there you should check it out). So then I turned. I don’t know what convinced me this was a good idea, but I managed to turn into a construction area. I was just looking for a slower road, really. Finally after trying to pick a couple more streets and none of them leading me anywhere I flagged down an old guy in an old truck at a stop light. I yelled, “I’m trying to get to 217.” He said you need to take a left here (crap I was in the far right lane). Luckily I this man is the nicest motorist on the road and he told me to pull in front of him when it turned green. I did and then he zoomed in front of me and actually led me all the way to 217. I realized he wasn’t even going that direction because at the light in front of 217 he got out and said, “go straight here, you’ll get right on.” I said, thanks so much and he turned to go back around.
People are so nice. I love nice people.

Speaking of nice things, happy early birthday to me:

www.overheardinnewyork.com

Erin sent me this link and I almost wet myself reading some of the things that people have over heard. Erin, this is something we should have come up with long ago, remember those quote books?
Thank you!

Well it’s August 21st and you know what that means… It’s Brent’s Birthday. My annoying awesome little brother is 23. August 21st also means something else to me… It’s nine days until my birthday!  Now before you go buying me things I don’t need. I have decided something. I am only going to be 25 and I still have a good 75% of my life left. That’s a long time people. I don’t want to waste all that time being mired down with possessions. And anyone who knows me knows that I have enough stuff already. So in lew of presents I wish for experiences or information.

For example:
Boating, camping, taking a stroll with me, meeting someone cool you know, go on a bike ride, have a great dinner together, taking a class with you, stories or me or you or both, the best paper you have ever written, or some cool tidbit of information you know I would like. You could even just sing me happy birthday and I would be over the moon happy. So no useless stuff for me please. Most of you have just gotten out of school and can’t afford it (well I know I can’t), and this way sounds more fun!

It is so much fun to shop for men! I was supremo nervous about my shopping trip with Bj, since I had only been with him to pick out clothes once before… and it was hell. Well, it was just so unlike shopping with a girl, I was shocked!  He didn’t want to talk while trying on clothes. Like if I said, “how did those ____________ fit?” or “have you tried on ____________ yet?” He got all defensive and said, “why are you bugging me while I’m trying to try on clothes?” What? Hello? I am trying to be helpful. So ya, that was three years ago. And that was about the last time he bought clothes too. For real.

Now that he had this real job he knew he had to get clothes, so know is half the battle. He also knew that he had to shop the sales, and that to use all the coupons his mom found he would have to be done by noon. We got to the shop (Meier and Frank) and got to it. Here is the amazing thing about guys clothes. They size by exact numbers. No vague size 8 which can really mean anything it seems, but actual numbers. He wears a 34×34, like always. It’s so easy, you just say, hey try this on and basically they just do for looks because they know it will fit. Then the shirts, they don’t even try them on! I’m not exaggerating when I say that. They come in little packs all neat and they stay that way until you bring them home. All you have to know is your neck size (I thought this was so funny), and length. Viola! You can pick out any color and they all fit the same. It’s like buying 12×12 patterned paper, you know it’s going to fit in the book. It’s genius. Well really what I think helps the guys out is their lack of boobs. That is what really throws this system off for girls.

After he got all these goodies we came back to his place and his mom painstakingly ironed everything he got and hung it so it would be perfect the first time he wore it. She is just too sweet to do that, especially because the iron was hot and Bj doesn’t have air conditioning. But Bj and I didn’t just sit around. Though we had most everything put together from Ikea we still had some arranging and organizing to do. So we worked on that, watched big brother and I headed home. I had so much fun helping Bj out. I even got him to toss a bunch of old clothes. He had some cool shirts that were too worn to wear any more, or had suffered from the unfortunate pen in the washing machine incident and were written all over. But the fabric was still cool in big enough pieces of these tops that I kept them. I am going to cut rectangles out of them and make a coin quilt like Hillary did over at Wee Wonderfuls. He had a bunch of reds and blues so I might do something patriotic. Phew. Shopping is hard work:

In other news I got my backtack bag and it is way too awesome to just mention in passing so I am going to devote an entry to its wonderfulness hopefully tomorrow. Oh and, have you seen this:

I swear this is the cutest thing I have ever seen. The space shuttle looks so itty bitty and cute!!!  It’s is being piggybacked to home base (Florida) since it couldn’t land there. Bill told me about this, and I was like, “whatever.” These are the things I don’t like to believe until I see because I don’t want to be taken. But it’s real. I read it in the newspaper, saw it on ABC and this image is from Nasa’s website which has lots of cool pictures and articles about the process. Can you believe we can do this stuff? Humans are so smart sometimes.