Spooky! Scary!

Yesterday I spent my day with close friends. We dressed up in our costumes, carved pumpkins, went to a wine-cork pull raffle (didn't win anything), and went to a couple of bars.

It was so much just hanging out with good people. We laughed about memories and laughed about everything else. I don't really have a real "blog post" to write about...but I'm just going to say, "LIVE AND HAVE FUN! SMILE! SURROUND YOURSELF WITH GOOD COMPANY."

That's all you really need. Surround yourself with people (friends and family), people who truly care about your well-being. You will never be disappointed.

Carving our awesome pumpkins!

Hayley and Kyle and Marvin the cat.

Me and Liz as Thelma and Louise. I'm Louise.

Jenny the construction worker and me!

Me as Louise.

Liz as Thelma.

Hayley as Robin Hood, me, and Kyle as no one.

24

Howdy, howdy, howdy! I'm 24 years old now :) I was born on Labor Day and my birthday was on Labor Day this year. Yay! It was a good birthday. I went out to lunch with my bff Andrea at Buffalo Wild Wings. Then I met my parents at the movie theater. We saw The Debt - really good movie. Then my brother and his family came over for supper and cake.

Since my last post, I left you wondering how our team did in our volleyball tournament. We were seeded 3rd out of nine teams. We never got to play the all-girl team again, but we would've definitely beat them if we had, and we ended up with 2nd place!! The team seeded in 8th place won - weird, right? They played the number 1 team and beat them! We watched with wide eyes in hopes that the 1st place team would lose, and they did. Holy crap, it was hilarious :) So we ended up in the championship game with the number 8 team and lost. It's okay. We should've beat them, but they deserved to win. They played a better game than us. It's as simple as that.

Now I'm on a new volleyball league with a different team. We played our first game last night and won. It was fun, as it always is.

Here's a picture of my niece Elsie. She is 2months old now!Elsie and me in August.

Time for a Kinsey Update

Since I've been gone, I need to do a catch-up with the lovely people who (hopefully) still read my blog when I have a new post. I'm crossing my fingers on that one.

1. I've been in bar volleyball league since the end of May. We're pretty good. Probably 2nd in our Wednesday bracket. There's one team that's really good, and a guy on the team wears one long colored sock. It's weird, so we call him the sock man. And whenever we have a really good hit, Jeremy says, "We need to put a sock on you!" Haha, we think it's funny.

2. On Wednesday we played an all-girl team. We had three guys and two girls on our team, since Andrea couldn't make it to the game. The rules are you need to ask the other team if it's okay to play with less girls than guys. I hate asking, and I've only had to ask one other time, but I strolled over to their side of the net and asked politely, "Is it okay if we play with three guys and two girls? My friend is a teacher (put that in there for good measure) and she can't make it."

They were silent for about five seconds too long before one girl said, "This happens to us every week."

"So is it okay?" I asked, completely ignoring her snarky remark.

"Fine."

Good, I thought. Then we started playing and the all-girl team totally sucks!! They are really bad. The snarky one did that one arm hit almost every time a ball came to her. We won all three games easily. Then at the end I heard the captain talking to the ref: "What would have happened if we said no they can't play with more guys?" The ref shrugged - he was probably thinking, it doesn't matter because next week is the tournament and the brackets are already up and you guys suck, so it really doesn't matter.

The girl then said, "Because next time this is not going to happen."

I stood there, signed off on the score sheet, and walked away. Seriously, they are the 2nd to worst team on our league. We could have played with three people and still killed them. I can't wait to play them next week (with our entire team) and really slam it in their faces.

3. I have a new niece in my family. My sister Tyne had her first baby in July. She named her Elsie, and she is soooooo cute! I'm her Godmother too! Yay! She likes to poop though. Just today, she was at our house and my mom was holding her. Then we heard this loud, juicy fart, and my mom pulled her away and Elsie's poop shot out of the side of her diaper - onto my mom's leg and the floor. GROSS! That was a nasty one. But she's still cute :)

4. I'm slowly running out of money. Even with my job (which is now only part-time) I'm just making my loan payments and other bills. It stinks. Thank goodness I live at home and don't have to pay for rent or groceries. Oh no, I just said, "Thank goodness I live at home." Something might be wrong with me.

5. Big Brother is my new favorite reality TV show. I want to be on it so bad! Does anyone else watch it?

6. I'm obsessed with a new show. It's not a "new" show, but it's new to me. I started watching Battlestar Galactica on Netflix Instant, and I LOVE it! It's so good. If anyone is looking for a show that is action/romantic/drama/mystery, then this is a show for you! It's also kind of funny. I started watching it on Sunday and I'm already done with the first season.

Battlestar Galactica

Well, I'm off to a wedding this weekend, and I promise to post more.

Bates Motel

I went to wedding this weekend. It was a nice wedding. Beautiful bride and wonderful music. Very enjoyable. The bridesmaids looked clad in their "Little Bo Peep" dresses - their words...not mine. But they did kind of look like Blue Sheepherders.

With every wedding there are speeches. I've given one as a maid-of-honor at my bff Andrea's wedding last August. I kept it short but meaningful. I didn't put in a bunch of "inside jokes" or embarrassing stories. I followed "THE RULES."

Unfortunately, at this wedding the maid-of-honor speech ran 10 minutes too long - I'm not exaggerating. This speech was literally 10 minutes long. I died a slow death that night, and almost died (seriously) later that night. I'll get to that later. Anway, the maid-of-honor had way too much to drink, so she rambled on and on and on AND ON about this sandwich - or what she liked to call - "SAMwich." The sandwich wasn't a critical part of the story. She should've stopped after her first story. Yes, she told more than one.

After the first story I couldn't even look at the head table. I was so embarrassed and uncomfortable. The entire reception hall slowly went into this awkward silence wishing that she would finally wrap up her SAMwich and call it a day. After about five more minutes of a story that was going nowhere, she finally finished her speech. Like on cue, everyone let out a sigh of relief. Thank god that was over.

Before I get to the part where I seriously thought I was going to die, let me tell you about the dinner rolls, because dinner rolls are very important in any meal. Well, every person at the reception received a basket of dinner rolls except our table! I was starving. Andrea and Jeremy weren't starving as much as I was because they ate at BWW during our 3 hour lapse between the wedding and reception. I wanted to save myself for the meal. Bad idea. While everyone else enjoyed their dinner rolls, we all sat drooling over our empty plates. Finally, a server stopped by our table and we informed her that we needed dinner rolls.

We all got served our salad, then our meal, then our rolls. But we got extra rolls. And HOT rolls right out of the oven. It's safe to say that we got the best dinner rolls in the entire state of Wisconsin. They were tasty!!!! And we were all able to have two! How wonderful.

Okay, now to the part where my life almost ended. So, I stayed at a motel because I wasn't sure if I would be able to drive home after the dance. I played it safe and booked a room across the road. When I checked in (before the reception) and pulled up to my room at The Royal Inn (nice name, right?) I got in and unpacked. The room smelled musty like an attic mixed with bad breath. Gross. So I sprayed my body spray all over the place in hope to mask the smell until my nose got used to it.

After the reception I pulled into The Royal Inn and made myself comfortable. The interior wasn't as bad as the exterior. The motel website even states: "Don't judge us by our exterior." That probably should have been my first sign as not to stay here, but I didn't want to spend over $100 a night, just to sleep. Well, I fell asleep and awoke around 2 or 3 am. I had an end room, and I heard two men talking outside. Actually, they were yelling at each other. For example:

"Take your mother-effing business somewhere else. I don't want to see your effing face again!"
"Nonononononono! I ain't doing nothing wrong."
Then there was some pushing (I'm guessing).
"I don't care. This is my place and you don't do business here. If you know what's good for you.."
blah blah blah, scary blah blah...

So I'm in bed, curled up in a tiny little ball with wide eyes thinking, "Ohmygosh, this is it. This is the end. One of the scary talking guys is gonna pull out a gun and shoot the other one, but miss and the bullet is gonna come through the wall and kill me. They won't find me until after check-out, and my dead body is going to be all over the news!"

I was freaking out. I thought about calling 911, but if I could hear them, then they could probably hear me, right? And I definitely didn't want to be a witness to anything. So I waited out their 5 minute "conversation" about drugs or pimping, or whatever, and fell back asleep. When I woke up, I was alive and well, but I got the hell out of there, and will never return again.

I'm happy to be alive.

Playwright = Me

I'm officially a playwright. I guess I was officially a playwright when I won the competition, but last night I actually felt it when I watched my play, "A Little Bit," on stage. It was a nerve-wracking experience up until last night, but wonderful none-the-less.

Yesterday, I spent my day doubting myself and my play: Would people laugh? Would they enjoy it? I hope they don't walk away from it saying it was a waste of money.

I am my own worst critic. My stomach was in knots...literal knots. I was so nervous that I barely had an appetite. And I always have an appetite.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my play did a fine job. My three actors really played well off of each other and the audience laughed appropriately. I was very touched to have about 25 close friends and family come to the performance just to see my play. That was my favorite part of the whole night.

Ride a Bike

Before the age of sixteen my bicycle was my only form of transportation. The faster I pedaled, the farther I ventured into my imagination: I was the cop, they were the robbers. I was a motorcyclist on the open road. I was the navigator of my airplane.

I grew up in a neighborhood with four other houses settled in a cul-de-sac. We all called it "The Circle." Across the road was my best neighborhood friend, Dusty. We would ride our bikes constantly around the circle, through our yards, and down to the stop sign at the end of our road only to turn around and do it all over again.

We would see how fast we could take the inside corner of "The Circle" where light sand and dirt settled. Sometimes we would wipe out. Sometimes not.

One time, Dusty rode on my bike handles. It wasn't safe, but it was fun. Especially when he flew off my handlebars because I hit the brakes too hard and quick. We never did that again. It sure was funny though.

When we drew our chalk houses on our driveways, our bikes were our cars and were parked in our chalk garages.

Our bikes acted as step-ladders propped next to a tree in order to get a frisbee down or to simply just climb a tree.

I would "repair" my bike in our garage. Fiddling with my dad's tools, not really doing anything to fix the unbroken bike, but to pretend that I knew how to fix my bike, because it was fun.

I loved my bike as a child. Almost everything I did growing up was with my bike. At first it was my sister's banana seater, and then I received my own NEW bike as a birthday gift around the age of 11 or so.

It saddens me to see some kids who don't appreciate the power of the bicycle. They are too busy with video games and television. My childhood was my bike and the adventures we had together, and I hope my kids (when I have them someday) will share this love too.

Trivia in Chippewa

As most of you know Wednesday means Team Trivia night for my friends and me. We started back in October at a bar in Stanley. Then after they stopped hosting there, we moved to a place in Eau Claire. Now we go to a bar/restaurant in Chippewa Falls.

Well, last week was our first week in Chippewa Falls at The Sheeley House. Kory and I arrived first, so it's our job to start thinking up a clever name for our team so we can win the free pitcher of beer at halftime. Previously, in Stanley and Eau Claire, the best team name won a free pitcher of beer...we've only won the pitcher a couple of times.

And in Stanley and in Eau Claire we were competing with some pretty clever and rude team names. One team always joked about Helen Keller and Anne Frank. Lately, people have been picking on Scott Walker. We once won with the name: "I tried to use penis as my password, but my computer said it was too short" - rude but worthy of free beer.

So Kory and I sat at The Sheeley House scoping out the other teams around us. We figured that they, like the other teams we played against in other towns, were just as clever and funny with their names. I mean, hello, it's a free pitcher of beer we're playing for!

We decided to use the name: "I like my women like I like my wine - 12 years old and locked in the cellar." (I think pedophilia is awful...but the team name was funny, so we used it). Our other team members agreed with the name. Hopefully the pitcher of beer would be ours.

Eight other teams were there, and when our standings were announced at halftime we awaited the creativity of names the other trivia teams had thought up. Boy, were we wrong. The DJ announced the names and the points accordingly. Here's how it went: The Jokers, 18 points, We Love The Sheeley House, 19 points, I'm Batman, 22 points, I like my women like I like my wine - 12 years old and in the cellar, 23 points.

Oh my gosh, we all sank in our seats. No other team was playing it funny and clever like us! How humiliating. Luckily, the other teams laughed at our name respectively. However, there is no free pitcher of beer at The Sheeley House. No wonder we were the only team with a rude/sick name.

Tonight, we will again drive to The Sheeley House for trivia. This time though, our name will be of a different sort.

Stuck in an Elevator

Ever said something, then five minutes later completely regret it because it came true? I have. Plenty of times.

A couple of weekends ago I went to the Rascal Flatts concert at the Xcel Energy center in St. Paul, MN. My friend, Heather, had two tickets so she invited me to go with her. We had a really great time! Rascal Flatts did an amazing job!! Chris Young and Luke Bryan opened for them...they were awesome too :)

To get to the concert, we parked in a parking garage and then walked to the elevator since we had to go up about 5 or 6 levels. As we stood in the cold, frigid Minnesota air waiting for the elevator to arrive, Heather turned to me and said, "I hope the elevator doesn't get stuck and we miss the whole concert."

I couldn't believe my ears. Did she just say what I thought she just said?? I replied, "Heather! Don't say that. That would suck if we missed the concert."

Finally the elevator opened up and we poured in. All six of us, plus the six who were already in there. Then four more people scrunched in - idiots, we were already jammed in there like sardines. The extra four made it even more uncomfortable for 16 strangers to be shoulder to shoulder in a hot elevator.

We went up one floor. Then all of sudden the elevator stopped. Heather and I looked at each other, since we both knew that it was her fault that the elevator stopped working.

"Omigosh! Is the elevator stuck? Omigosh, omigosh! I cant' believe this is happening," was what the Rascal Flatts t-shirt wearing sardines all said.

Heather and I just stared at each other. Then she said, "I shouldn't have said that."

"Um, yeah, Heather, you hexed us. Don't say anything else while we're stuck in here," I ordered her. Then we both laughed. Holy crappola! It was unbelievable.

The lady closest to the buttons pressed the emergency one. Then the intercom came on and told us not to panic and that they had someone on their way.

Luckily for us, we weren't stuck between floors, so the strong sardines in the front pried the door open. We all flooded out, climbed the 4+ floors, and enjoyed the concert.

After the concert we (dumbly) waited for the elevator again. I reminded Heather, in good humor, to not say anything about elevators getting stuck ever again.

Old News: Black Friday is the Blackest of Fridays...Especially at Walmart

Walmart people are the worst. That was my Facebook status on the day after Thanksgiving at about 2 o'clock in the AM!! And ya know what! They truly are the WORST! Let me start from the beginning.

Wednesday while I was visiting my bestie Andrea, she asked me to go Black Friday shopping with her. Aaaand since I had a few too many drinks I said yes! Later, I tried to get out of it, but I think I'm kind of a people pleaser so I just agreed (again) to shop with her on the darkest day of the year.

Thursday came with a wallop of turkey, potatoes, stuffing (YUM), and other good food. My siblings and I searched through the flyers of "must have deals and doorbusters" when my sister, Tyne, said, "Let's get dad a TV." Target had an awesome deal, and I agreed that I would stand in line with her. So I promised Andrea that I would shop with her and then my sister too. Knowing that Andrea would understand, I was able to work out my shopping plans so that I could do Target with Tyne and then meet up with Andrea for the rest of the morning.

As I searched the flyers for the umpteenth time, I figured that I could run to Walmart and grab a few DVDs too. Might as well, right? Wrong.

Friday morning came faster than ever. I dropped Tyne off at Target so she could stand in line. The time was 1:00 AM. I dashed off to Walmart to get those cheap DVDs. Well, all the ones I wanted/needed were gone except for one. So I grabbed it, dialed Tyne's cell to tell her that I would probably be awhile since the lines are disgustingly long at Walmart, and then got in line. Thinking I was at the end of the line I shut my cell phone. The lady in front of me turned around with a nasty wicked witch of the west look and said, "Ya' know...it's not nice to cut!"

I apologized immediately and said that I didn't even realize I cut. She didn't care. She just turned around to her heaping cart full of Walmartness, and I politely moved to find a new line. I felt bad, yes, but I didn't know I was cutting. I swear! I never even cut in the lunch line when it was tater-tot hotdish day!!

After I found a new line, I stood there with my DVD for 20 minutes. The line didn't budge once!! So I left the DVD in the greeting card aisle and went back to my sister empty-handed.

Yes, Walmart people are the worst. The store was a mess on Black Friday. The lines were atrocious. There was no order or method to the check-out lanes and they didn't even have all of the lanes open. Plus, that lady was mean to me, and she made me feel bad.

After Target opened at 4:00 AM, I got the TV, grabbed a couple of DVDs and other things and was checked out in about 15 minutes. Target was well prepared with everything. Therefore, Target people are the best.

The rest of the morning went well when I met up with Andrea. All the other stores did a good job with all the madness of shopping too. Props to Sam's Club, Younkers, Menards, and Target.

But Walmart, shame on you!

**Honestly, I have nothing against Walmart on the other days of the year. In fact, I shop there a lot. But I will never Black Friday shop there again**

Halloween is mine. Oh yes, it will be mine

And it was!!! Halloween was a ton of fun. As you know, I was Wayne Campbell and Andrea was Garth Algar from Wayne's World. Here are some pictures from the night. By the way, I had to put on extra make-up, because I looked too much like a boy. Good thing I have boobs, haha.

Kinsey's World!

WAYNE'S WORLD!!! Party time!! Excellent!

Anyone else really excited about Halloween? I mean, every single year I look forward to this magical holiday night. It's my second favorite holiday. Christmas is first...presents, duh...and Jesus.

So my bff (Andrea), her hubby (Jeremy), and I are dressing up as Wayne-me, Garth-Andrea, and Jeremy will be Terry the cameraman.

NO WAY!!!
WAY!!

Yes, this will be an excellent night. Let the countdown begin...

But first, let me show you a picture of Andrea, Jeremy, and me. Picture us in Wayne's World gear. Use your imagination people.

Okay, really use your imagination because blogger won't let me upload a picture at this time.

All I have to say about that is "asphinctersayswhat."

Exactly.

OMG...MIA

I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that I haven't posted in almost 20 days. I feel really bad, but I've also been really busy.

I checked my phone this morning and I saw that I had a comment on my last blog. One of my followers was checking up on me. So of course, I had to blog right away. It means a lot to me that my followers are still thinking about me even though my blogging days have gone from everyday to once or twice every month. Seriously, if I had wireless in my house, I would still be blogging almost every single day, and that's a Kinsey Promise.

So what have I been up to??? Let me tell you.

My best friend Andrea got married on August 14th, so that whole was full of things for me to do :)

Speaking of that week (wow, my transitions are a little rusty) I got offered a job!! WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I was on the computer looking for jobs, as usual, on Friday the 7th. I noticed that a temp agency was looking to place someone as an order assembler in Menomonie. I emailed the agency my resume and within 5 minutes - no joke, 5 minutes - they called me saying that they were interested. So I did an interview with them on the 10th, they called me the same day saying that the company wanted to do an interview with me. I had an interview with Big Dot of Happiness in Menomonie on Wednesday, and they wanted to hire me. Everything happened really fast and I was so happy that someone wanted to hire me...so happy!! Finally :)

Anyway, on Friday the 13th (cue eerie music) I drove into Eau Claire with the bride and the bridesmaids and we all got our nails done. Then we had rehearsal in this beautiful Catholic church. After, of course, we had the dinner. It was a dark and stormy night, and the dinner was at a park. Luckily, I left before the torrential rains came down.

On Saturday, the 14th, I woke up bright and early to get my hair done. Then we spent our morning and afternoon at the church getting ready and walking down the aisle - strictly wedding stuff :)

Bridesmaids and Andrea

I was the maid-of-honor, and very honored to be in Andrea's wedding. You see, we've been friends since kindergarten. I remember the first day of school when Andrea held tight to her mother's legs. Ever since that day or the day after, we've been really good friends.

Putting earrings in! My sister made Andrea's jewelry :)

The wedding was beautiful, Andrea looked gorgeous, and the entire bridal party looked stunning together.Me and Andrea

So on Sunday, after a night of drinking and dancing and partying like a rock star, I rode up with my parents to my sister's house for my goddaughter's 2nd birthday. Little Addie!!! She is such a cutie pie :) I took her outside for a little bit and as we were walking around the yard barefoot I stepped in some mud...or poop. Fearing that it was the latter, I sat down on the deck stairs and wiped off this brown substance with a leaf. But no worries, it was mud. Addie looked at me, bent down to grab some grass, and then proceeded to wipe off her little toes with it.

Addie and me (this summer)

We arrived back home around 10:00pm and with the new job on my brain, I barely got a wink of sleep before waking up at 6:30 the next day. Monday, the 16th, was my first day at Big Dot of Happiness, and boy was I tired. I pushed through it though, and had a pretty darn good day.

I had a pretty darn good week, for that matter. I work with wonderful people who are polite and friendly to give me a hand or answer a question I might have. Basically what I do is put together invitations and party supplies (like favor boxes, stickers, thank you cards, candle favor tins, and other party favor things...I've been doing favor boxes all week just to get used to everything). You can check out their website if you're curious about the company.

All week I've been coming home from work, putting my feet up, and going to bed around 9:00. I think I've gotten used to waking up and working from 9-5 now, so bring on next week!

MIA...yes, but you see that I've had one helluva month so far. I'll try to keep up as best as I can with all of your blogs and writing on my own. Again, I apologize for not keeping you all in the loop.

And before I forget, I got my haircut on Thursday. I'll post of picture of that next week.

Wednesday Musings: Take Eleven

My new favorite shows are The Closer, Rizzoli and Isles, and Hot in Cleveland. Granted, The Closer isn't a "new" series, but it's the first I've watched it...and let me tell you, "It's Kinsey Approved!"

I applied for an administrative assistant position for a chiropractic office last Sunday, and last Monday they called me, but I was asleep (as it was 9 am and I had no reason to start my day early), so my niece picked up the phone and told them that I was asleep. She took the message like a young Pam Beasley and when I woke up about 15 minutes later I returned the call. The secretary answered and had no idea that I was called, but said she would find out who called me and then have them call me back. I waited and waited and waited and waited. I waited for a couple more days and then I called them back, thinking that they were probably really busy. So I explained to this dude on the phone who I was and asked them what the situation was on my call back, he said he would figure it out and have someone call me. Well, no one called me back and I don't care if they hired someone else, but at least have the decency to tell me. GOSH!

That was a long musing, but I had to get it out there. I feel better now.

I got caught in a storm again. Just my luck, right? I went to River Falls to visit a friend and I had just left her place when it started to rain cats and dogs. I made it about 5 miles down the road when I had to turn back after getting a call from my mom and then my friend saying the sirens were going off. So I stayed in River Falls for another hour waiting for the storm to pass. Is God trying to send me some sort of message via storms??

I got a new phone!! It's a Palm Pre Plus, and it rocks! It totally rocks! I'm in love with it. I thought about doing a blog from it, but it would take me a really long time, so I'm not going to. Maybe someday...when I master, of course, the little keypad of abc's.

On the way to see Ramona and Beezus with my niece who takes messages for me while I'm sleeping, I told Caitlyn that I'm like Beezus and she's like Ramona - since she doesn't have a big sister, only and older brother, and I don't think he's the Selena Gomez type. But after the movie (which was really good!) I told her that I could be her "Aunt Bea" and she can still be Ramona. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, Aunt Bea, is Aunt Beatrice, Ramona's mom's sister...even though I'm Caitlyn's dad's sister...man, this is falling apart in front of my eyes.

Here's a still from the movie. Aunt Bea, Beezus, Ramona, and Dorothy Quimby

I'm sitting downstairs with my hood up. It's that kind of night. Plus my hair is wet from swimming, and I don't want to freeze down here.

Why Facebook, Why?

I haven't been on Facebook in awhile. The sparkle that was once in my eye for that special networking site has faded. I've been a Facebook member since high school, and I used to waste away my day looking at pictures, searching for new buttons that expressed who I am, and adding more information to an already jam-packed profile.

Now, as a 22 (almost 23 year old) the last thing I did was post pictures from this summer. I had to...you see, my newest nephew was born on the 17th, and I had the Facebook urge to show my friends and relatives his cute, little baby face. His name, if you would like to know is Alec Boyd Bodenburg. And I have a feeling I will love him just as much as I love Alec Baldwin.

The day he was born I traveled to the nearest computer to write in my status a congratulatory statement to my brother and his wife. My sister, Tyne, had already written one, and so had my brother (the father of Alec) - earlier in the morning after Alec was born. Then I realized that this information on my six hour old nephew had already gone viral!

Back in the day, when dinosaurs weren't able to chat with their prehistoric buddies via Facebook chat, since it was down (as it almost always is), they had to telephone people, send letters, walk to their neighbor's house to deliver news of any sort. Now, I can go on my laptop and type in a simple sentence and have hundreds of friends know instantly.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it seems like not long ago, we were a more connected society. And through physical contact we achieved this.

Likewise, I can go on Facebook and find out in about ten minutes of browsing, who is pregnant, who is single, who got laid-off, and who got drunk the weekend before. I can see who got a new tattoo, who scored the highest in the racing game, who would "rather be enjoying the nice weather instead of working," and who is putting their child down for a nap and will be back to Facebook shortly. This social network is more of a private network seen socially by anyone who is "friends" with someone else.

But this isn't all bad. On the contrary, word spreads fast on Facebook and you can learn a lot about someone or something that is going on. I agree that Facebook is a nice way to massively spread information and share good news - like my nephew, Alec.

But I also think that maybe we should step back a bit, and not share anything and everything that happens to us the moment it happens. I don't want to know about the hair clog in your sink drain. I don't need to know that (Pet name here) peed all over the carpet, and I definitely don't want to know when you woke up, went to bed, or when you are eating.

If you would send out a public announcement about an engagement, wedding, baby arrival, and/or change of address to your friends and family, then it is okay to post that on Facebook.

If you call up your mother every time you take a bite out of your sandwich...then I would think twice about letting your Facebook friends know, because, honestly, we don't care.

(I've been subject to writing useless Facebook status updates in the past...I think we all have)

It was like a Beach Boys song

I played sand volleyball last night. A friend of ours needed two players to fill in and luckily both my sister Kyrstin and I were able to help out. We played three games and had a lot of fun.

Oh the joys of sand volleyball...the list is endless:

1. You can sport a nice tan or work on one.

2. Beer...need I say more? (I just drank water though)

3. The competition is always fun.

4. Taking your frustrations out on the volleyball.

5. Diving for a ball just feels really good.

Okay, so the list is not "endless."

So last night as we played this team of middle aged people, I noticed this lady in a pink shirt who would only use one arm to hit the ball. There was nothing wrong with her other arm, she just used the one arm to bump the ball. Oddly enough, the ball would go over almost every time. I couldn't help but laugh when she successfully got the ball over the net with this one-arm technique.

Then it started to frustrate me when the other team, as poor as their volleyball skills were, would score on us. I mean, our team consisted of four previous Elk Mound High School Volleyball teammates and two guys who actually knew how to hit the ball. Hmmmph! We should've killed them with our awesome talent ;)

We did end up winning all three games and I think we beat them by a pretty good margin each time, so that made me feel good about myself. But if I hit like One-Arm Pinkerbell, my hits would've went sailing left or right into the other court, since I was properly trained to hit a volleyball the right way.

Let me end on this note: Although I had a great time playing, I didn't appreciate the sand in my face, hair, crevices, and holes. And get your head out of the gutter - EAR holes .

Just Keep Swimming

Today is the first day that we are using our pool this year. We've had some pretty crappy weather up to this point. Also, we had to put in a new liner, since ours has weathered for about 20 years.

It's supposed to be 88 degrees and sunny! Yes!!! HOT WEATHER! I love it.

I remember as a kid swimming with my brothers and sisters. Oftentimes, we would set up a volleyball net and have friends over to play. Then we got a slide. That was a very exciting time for us.

We found that we would slide down faster if we put my kickboard under us as we went down the slide. Surprisingly, no one got hurt.

When I was really young, I remember being thrown into the pool by my older brothers - Blake more than Boyd. This resulted in time-outs for Blake, and me crying (of course!).

Luckily for me, I grew up with two pools to play in. My neighbor, Dusty, also had a pool. Dusty and I spent most of our summer afternoons in the pool playing "Shark" with his older brother Derek. Then Dusty and I would get tired of swimming, so we would build forts on the deck out of lawn chairs, towels, and pool toys. That was my favorite.

As far back as I can remember, swimming has always meant summer to me. It's sad that I've grown away from being thrown in the pool and playing "Shark" with Dusty, but we all have to grow up...that doesn't mean I have to stop from forever playing those games though - I have young nieces and nephews!

Literally...

My roommate and I were talking the other day about how her fiance uses the term "literally" wrong.

For example: He will say, "I'm so mad that I'm literally going to rip my head off and throw it at the door!"

Yeah...so she corrects him.

Well, my niece, Caitlyn, takes sayings to the "literal" degree. She's only 8 though ;) Like the other day (wow, I use "other day" a lot...but this was literally the "other day", the first "other day" was about 3 weeks ago) I was looking at The Philosopher's Handbook (part of the wonderful giveaway that I won from Sam over at Thoughts, Writings, Coffee...) and I said-

"This looks very interesting, but a little too heavy for me to read right at this moment."

My 8-year-old niece replies, "Can I hold it to see how heavy it is?"

I couldn't help but laugh. It was too sweet!

As you all know, I got a Wii for my college graduation. Yep, I'm a grown-up! I haven't bought any games yet, and my nephew (who is going to be 11 next month) left me this note this morning:

Property of
Billy Bodenburg
To Aunt Kinsey
you may borrow
the game until the
end of June at
the very most
amount of time.

(It was stuck in the Super Mario Bros. Wii game in the bathroom so I would see it right away)

It was a great start to my day. Plus, the game is pretty much amazing. After he got home from school we played it. He was Mario and I was Luigi. He also thought it was funny to pick me up and throw me (in the game, not in real life).

So I'd like to literally end this post by thanking Sam for the wonderful prizes. I've read 9 of the 50 Books You Must Read Before You Die (on the bookmark)...so only 41 more to go!

Oh, and go see Hot Tub Time Machine it was so funny that I literally laughed my head off...did I use that right?