cartilage popsicles
WARNING: stupid, lame-o chronicle of my weekend entry, despite the working title being interesting.
Well, SO! That was my kind of weekend. I came home Friday after working out (and being some girl's hero for both figuring out which locker was hers AND opening it) to find my sisters here from Seattle and Justin making his magnifique lasagna! Mmmm... fontina.

The two sisters that came to visit me are Allie and Liz, seventeen and fourteen respectively. Allie's entering her senior year of high school now, and Liz her sophomore. My youngest sib, Eleanor (7) stayed in Seattle. Good thing, I don't think I want to try and handle her. Heh. I did a pretty good job of not corrupting my sisters with my debaucherous college lifestyle. Didn't subject them to drugs, alcohol, or sex... but we did watch a few movies that I'm sure my mom wouldn't have liked. Nothing in the "porn" category, mind you, just Fight Club and Dracula 2K DVDs. Yum, Fight Club. I can really identify with that movie. People are such docile cows when it comes to money and stuff. In fact, I feel like lowing right now. Mooooooo.

Probably would have been a bit more adventurous and spent more time socializing with the kids had I not already been lined up to get five certified on Sat and Sun. Saturday, we drove out to the coast at the butt-crack of dawn and ended up paying $5 to get into the state park and not even diving there. Three dives (1,2,4) were done in Lake Woahink, across the way. Only the third dive was done off the Jetty, and that was just exploring. Thank GOD because the water was 48 freakin degrees. I'm glad for full farmer john wetsuits, hoods, boots, and gloves. Yay for insulation!

On the ocean dive, I saw lots of baby crabs (but none big enought to catch), a hermit crab, and a moonjelly... the rest of the time the water was too dark and murky (2 ft. viz) to see anything. It was quite surreal. The Lake dive proved more interesting. There I saw.... a lobster, some dinosaurs, a Kiss Concert, a pink flamingo and "Joe's Place" frog, a rocking horse, Mt. Bobba Fett, a pig, a whale, a shark, about 3 or 4 sunken boats and some minnows. Rather amusing dive! Yes, the instructors use the Lake as a dive site fairly often and so have stapled various lawn ornaments and other junk to the logs that grace the silt floor. But the "wrecks" are real... some old dinghys left out too long that rusted through.

So that's how we spent the weekend, with them basking in the sun and trying to keep amused, and Justin and I underwater. I'm now certified and eager for Belize! The sisters and I socialized at night and watched movies more often than talked. But it was great to have company and last night we went to Shiki in celebration and ate huge quantities of Sukiyaki, Udon, Sushi, Edamame, Tofu, Veggies, and Miso.

Allie and Liz got along for the most part, a welcome change from their past squabbling. The worst they got was a bit grabby and hyper, but nothing beyond tickling and calling each other "Cheesy P." and "Butt Jelly." Don't ask. Apparently their new thing is giving each other stupid nicknames. They call Eleanor "Big Tooth." I said these sound like bad rapper names, so they called me "Queen Tuna LaQueefa." I'm rather pleased with that one myself. We couldn't, however, come up with anything more original for Justin than "Sir Scratch and Sniff." I can think of a few things more fitting but less appropriate for his nickname, but I'll spare you them. Yeah, the sisters and I get bad when we're around each other. And it was great this weekend because there were no parents to get offended and tell us to shut up.

We sat around last night and ate popsicles in the blistering heat. They were these pineapple orange popsicles and had these weird chunks of frozen fruitlike stuff about the consistency of cartilage. It would have been gross had the popsicles not been so good. It's been decided that we should write Dole about their cartilage brand popsicles and complement them on the excellent consistency of the ears and noses they're using. I wonder if they'd give us a lifetime supply of popsicles just to get us to shut up.

Their train was like 2 hours late today, so we hung out a bit before they left. I showed them the WEEEE! animation and the original Yatta because they'd only seen the spoof. I don't think they were impressed by Tokyo Breakfast ^^. Needless to say, Today was stressful and exhausting. I finally got my plane tickets to Michigan and I'll be going back from the morning of August 12 to the afternoon of August 23rd. In between the Gig Harbor and Salem Faires. Perfect timing! Ugh. I hate missing so much work AND spending $400 on tickets. That leaves me out $1200. Sigh. Oh well... I'd feel even worse if I didn't go home. I really WANT to go but I'm still overwhelmed by feelings of anxiety and work-related guilt over taking two weeks off. But the urge to go home is even stronger. Still, after talking to my grandparents this weekend, I get the feeling that I'm at that age that is no longer endearing nor really flattering (a success story) to them. I'm just the awkward, searching teenager and they're getting too old to put the energy into spoiling me or giving me advice.

It was interesting to talk to so many people that I haven't spoke with for so long. I talked to my parents, my sisters, both sets of grandparents, Lesley, and Sian this weekend. Man... talk about going back. I haven't seen my grandparents or old friends in about four years! People change... Sian says she's even heard through the grape vine that Emilio, a friend from my Ypsi high circle, has finally come out! We all knew he was gay... I'm just so happy for him!

In any case, I'm really tired and burnt out. I'm going to give blood tomorrow so I'd best be rested. They told me I have A- blood and I'd always been convinced I had B+ blood. I was excited to be a more rare blood type, but I think they're just lying bitches... my dad has O+ and my mom has B+ and all us kids' crib cards say B+ (blood type being genetic) so there's NO WAY I can be A-... unless.... nah.

I always knew I was weird but there's no way I'm an alien.

Will post pictures from weekend tomorrow