Visit. And tell everyone you know.

And even those you don't. For those of you (and I know you're out there) who wish I posted more frequently, it's your lucky life. If I haven't informed you by email or sending a plane to write in the sky above your house, my friend Jenn and I have a new endeavor. It's been really fun to put together and great to have a project to put solid, creative energy toward. So visit. And tell your friends, amigos, and your enemies. They deserve good web reading too.

Also, I discovered why it seemed weird to buy purple shoes. It hit me as I put them on for the first time, while wearing royal blue shorts and a KU shirt. But I still love them.

Dear Diary

A handyman came across my diary while putting a bathroom in the basement of my mom’s house. It was in the ceiling, where I had put it so that my secrets would be safe—and where it was safe, assuming Ed didn’t peek before handing it over to my mom. My mom then mailed me the single most hilarious gift I’ve ever received and like a good mommy, she heeded the note that read: “If you find this diary please don’t read it. Thanks Erin”. The note was dated November 10, 1992.


The diary, written circa 1989-90, wasn’t exactly the most titillating reading material, as you can imagine. I also wasn’t exactly adept at writing in those early days. It’s amazing that I turned into anything of a writer at all; reading it, I want to strongly recommend math to my 8-year-old self. But, as I found out, math wasn’t my strong suit either.

I’ll let the excerpts do the talking; you don’t need me telling you how funny this is.

Sept. 10: I just made some brownies. I will eat the brownies I made. See ya.


Sept. 11: My boyfriend is Paul*. I don’t know if he likes me.

Sept. 12: I’ve hid you in a special place. I hid you, well when the air comes on it were the cold air comes out. It’s hiden there. [I hid Diary in the floor vent, prior to the ceiling brilliance]

Sept. 14: I’ve had a boyfriend for a couple of weeks. His name is Paul……Well I really like him. I think he likes me but I’m not sure.

Sept. 19: I almost gave Paul my friend ship bracelet but I didn’t. I wish I would have. Tommorow I will if he asks…..OH! A boy named Jearmy came today. He’s sort of cute I think he is but I still like Paul.

Sept. 29: After lunch we had reading time. Well I was sitting down. Paul pulled a stool up right beside me.

Oct. 2: Paul is cute as ever. We started cursive. It is fun. Really Paul is cuter than ever.

Oct. 3: I had a great day. We went out to the field and dumped out greasy water. I said that there was someone out there but there wasn’t I guess. [What the hell was I smoking this day!?]

Oct. 5: I’ve had my shower. I shampooed my hair and The 3rd grade classes are going on a field trip in Wamego.

Oct. 9: There was a new girl in my class that is cocky. She asked Paul to go with her. And Adam. Paul said no.

Oct. 11: I got my mouth rinsed washed out with soap. I don’t like that. It tastes awful!

Oct. 19: My teeth are crooked. I want BRACES.

Nov. 7: Gretchen and Clarissa are what you call NERDS. I don’t like them as much as I use to. Got to take my bath!

Nov. 27: I must tell you. I’m getting glasses. Probably. I’m getting my eyes checked 4. I want glasses and braces. Don’t tell a soul.

Dec. 19: I’ve got my glasses and boy do I like them. Paul is doing great. He likes my glasses. Here’s some of my hair. [I must have been planning to cut my hair and thought better of it.]

Jan. 30: Paul said skoot my desk against his ‘cause he liked me. Amazing!


Feb. 27 [the most angst-filled entry]: Nobody likes me nobody cares. My best friend invited my other best friend to spend the night not me. Even my own cat Smitty won’t even sleep with me.

Feb. 28: Today when I went to school I started feeling different. I guess Jessica cares about me. Nikki just brags because she’s on the 7s in multiplication.** (I’m on 5s) My other boyfriend is Lee.***


March 8: I’m still in love with Lee. He’s very cute and nice. In multiplication I’m on 7s.

March 30: [I kid you not, there are lipstick kisses. Someone has a “sly smile.” Too embarrassed to share whole entry.]

April 6: I have a major crush on a major guy!

June 25: I haven’t bee to whoopy talking to you, lately

Other notables: I apologize to Diary a lot for neglect. If you couldn’t tell, I also report a lot on my hygiene habits: “I took my shower before that.” “I already got my bath.” “I got my bath and I got to brush my teeth and go to bed.” “I got out of my bath. I’ve got to dry my hair.” I also read a lot (shocker) and report on all of my books.

In the span of one year, according to this diary, I had three boyfriends. To set the record straight, I had zero boyfriends. There was actually no one that even mildly resembled a boyfriend until I was 16. So 8-year-old Erin was about 8 years too early. Looking back, I do think Paul liked me. What a flirt. I have to go take my bath now.

* Last name omitted to protect those who didn’t know they were my boyfriend
**Nikki remained better than me in math, all the way through high school, and I'm sure, even now.
***It must have been Nikki and Jessica who had the rendezvous without me; I'm sure I felt better after insulting Nikki and her multiplication tables. Take that!

Fun in the city

After my Phoenix trip I had to wait a whole 4.5 days before my mom came out to visit me. Yay! This time, she brought my grandma. Instead of giggle power times 2, I was dealing with giggle power times 3. It was great fun. I picked them up from the airport and we headed straight to lunch, where I showed them the wonders of Chipotle and gave them a tutorial on ordering in their future Chipotle endeavors. After the bellies were full, it was off to Stanford!

As I mentioned in my previous post, my mom is new at the art of taking her own picture. And she learned fast!


I would have taken the photo for them, but I was too busy sprinting back and forth to the car putting change in the meter. Come on Stanford, I only ever have my debit card on me...I'm not a change keeper for the odd meter.

After my workout was in, we headed up to the Hoover Tower. The view is always amazing. I'm a big fan of good views lately.


After campus and a 30-second walking tour of the apartment, we headed up to the big city for a night on the town. We had a delicious dinner, ended up paying for another table's way more expensive dinner, and then had yummy donuts on the pier.

The next morning we hoofed it down to Pier 39, where we watched the sea lions. They are seriously super cute, and with their little whiskers, quite Marti-esque, albeit a tiny bit stinky. This little guy was loving the sun.


Once we dealt with the restaurant that wronged us, we finished up at the Pier, and after we'd taken the requisite group shot (because the sign said it was a photo-op spot), we headed on over the Golden Gate Bridge to see more sites.

Now, Alan and I only drove over the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time just a month or so ago. It's a cool drive, and I knew my mom and granny would enjoy it. So we braved a bit of the California traffic and headed over. Plus, I wanted to show them Sausalito. As Alan and I did at first sight, they fell in l-o-v-e with Sausalito. If you could bottle perfection, it would be Sausalito in a bottle. It's got an amazing view of San Francisco; it's right on the water; it has the cutest little shops and restaurants; flowers are in bloom and everything's perfectly manicured. It's out of a perfect little book or movie. I want to move up to Sausalito, but I probably couldn't afford a single brick in that town.

The sneaky beast strikes again

So I posted my most embarrassing moments of the year back in December, both of which, crazily enough, involved Marti. One of the contenders was when she broke into another apartment and I had to trap her in a bathroom to catch her. Well, not only has she struck again, revisiting the first apartment, but she’s added the other apartment to her pug-burglar repertoire.

We’re in a ridiculous heat wave, so I’ve been doing all I can to keep the apartment cool. It’s a losing battle. So yesterday I opened the front door and propped a chair in front of it so I could keep some sort of a breeze flowing through. Little Marti of course sees the potential for sweet, sweet freedom, and sneaks her little butt out the front door…while I’m watching. The nerve. It wouldn’t have been so bad had our neighbors not had their door open too, employing the same cooling method I was.

I rush out the front door and right into the apartment, where Marti and her cat enemy were facing off and the neighbors were trying to cordon Marti off in the dining area. Marti was a little freaked out, what with the cat out to kill her and people trying to trap her. But not freaked out enough to bypass the cat food, which gave me the opportunity to snag the little thing and hightail it out of there…apologizing profusely the whole way.

Now that Marti has trespassed into forbidden cat territory, I’m sure the cat will really be out for blood. The hissing has already resumed.

Fun in the Desert/Fun in the Dessert

I don't know when my blog turned into a travel blog; it's not really intended to be one, but here I go again. A couple of weekends ago I hopped on over to Phoenix. My mom was going to visit Kyle, so I thought I'd crash their party. I hadn't seen either of them since Christmas, and I don't do well going that long without seeing family! My mom and I landed within about five minutes of each other and I thought I was going to crash down the jetway to get to her. I don't think we stopped jabbering for about two hours.

We headed to Kyle's place where we bunked down for the evening before getting up to go to the Grand Canyon the next day. That's one amazing hole in the ground. It was slightly different this time without the helicopter entry, but I made do.

Here she is.


Seriously, some amazing vistas to behold.


The whole lot of us.


Don't push me in!


This didn't feel extremely dangerous, but it looks it from afar.


That night for dinner we went to this great restaurant called White Chocolate Grill. Needless to say, we couldn't leave without getting the White Chocolate Brownie. It was sinfully delicious.


The next day, we had to hike off the brownie, so Kyle and I trucked it to the top of Pinnacle Peak.


The view from the pinnacle was pretty amazing as well. Not Grand Canyon amazing, but Pinnacle Peak amazing.


My mom also learned on this trip the point-the-camera-at-yourself-and-shoot trick, but I won't post that picture because she brought me into this world, and I'm pretty sure she can take me out.

Furniture Fiasco

Months ago, Alan and I went to a furniture store closeout sale, hoping to snag a deal on a dresser for our bedroom. We'd finally had it with the 20-year-old pre-Martha Kmart dresser that had been passed around my household like a family heirloom. Though not especially attractive, it was still near-functional until two saintly women* allegedly busted it while loading it into a moving van. It was ready to retire anyway, so we headed to the big sale.

I think we were a little late.



Either that, or an earthquake struck right before we walked in the doors.



The 90-90% off signs should have been our first clue. So we ended up back at old, faithful Ikea and came across this beauty. Niiiice. And we didn't have to beat up anybody or camp out for it. Niiiiicer.



Photo snagged from Ikea.

*Happy Mother's Day to both of you!