Top Ten Signs That You've Been Impatiently Waiting for Summer

1. You agreed that it was swim-suit season in February, and have been swimming in hotel pools since.

2. That you just go to the tanning bed to feel the warmth.

3. You've been wearing flip flips since last summer ended.

4. You grill all year round...even when the big snowstorm came through.

5. Your office is plastered with pictures of Hawaii beaches and palm trees.

6. You listen to The Beach Boys and/or Kenny Chesney everyday.

7. You think proper attire for Casual Friday is a bikini with a towel wrapped around your waist.

8. You sip margaritas with a beach hat on while watching Oprah in the afternoon.

9. You don't mind it when your kids track in sand from outside, because you like the feeling of it between your toes.

10. You have or are thinking about packing up and leaving for the Middle East just so you can get some sun.

Summer is nearing and the temperatures are up in Wisconsin!!! Have a happy weekend! I won't be updating until Monday since I'm moving my sister and her family. (Sorry I've been slack this week. It's been really hard to find the time to blog and read all of your blogs). I promise that I will be more on track next week.

I just call her Fergie

Today I was baking cookies and my mom came in the kitchen. This is how our conversation went:

Mom: "Did you hear the latest about Fergie? Princess Fergie...whatever she's being called."

Kinsey: "I just call her Fergie."

Mom: "Not the singer Fergie."

Both of us: "HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Kinsey: (thinking) I feel stupid. "I thought you meant the singer. You mean Wales Fergie or wherever she is from???"

Mom: "England, yeah. She is having people pay to see Prince Andrew for like $10,000.00!"

Kinsey: "That's a pretty good idea."

Mom: "No, Kinsey, that's really bad."

Kinsey: "Oh, haha...I just call her Fergie."

Both of us: (more laughs)

I sort of felt like the dumb girls off the street when Jay Leno does his segment "Jaywalking."

Shame On You!

High school sports. Ahhhh, those were the good ole days, right? Eh, I suppose.

Don't get me wrong, I love sports. I LOVE athletics! I really do, but sometimes the politics or something else got in the way of the game.

Let's take a look at my junior year of volleyball. That year, the coach's daughter was a freshman. She was a great athlete and so were a couple of her freshmen friends, but they weren't quite ready for the varsity level - or at least that's what the varsity team thought. Our coach felt different. Needless to say, the coach's daughter and her friends played varsity with us.

After we voiced our opinions on the matter of the younger girls' little experience, we had a "meeting" after one of our away games in our high school locker room. Here, our coach yelled at us. We took it in stride and some of the girls cried and some talked about it and some (me) just sat and took it all in. At one point, my friend Hayley accidentally knocked a table over and us girls giggled about it (because it was funny...and really late at night). Our coach thought we weren't taking the meeting seriously and stormed out. When she came back she yelled at us some more and said, "SHAME ON YOU!" This is an example of politics getting in the way of my love for volleyball.

I'm not saying that my coach was mean or anything, because she was a very good coach. At the time though, I just wanted to play the game without any drama.

Next came softball. Not so much politics in this sport, but other things. Like the year I was in a "slump" with another girl. Our coach moved us down in the batting order, instead of giving us a chance to hit. We never got to practice improving out hitting game during practice...so how were we supposed to get better? Magic? I don't think so. To top it off, my coach printed off an article on hitting slumps and handed them out before a game, where she announced that me and this other girl were both struggling and should really take this article seriously.

If Derek Jeter can go 0-a lot, then so can I. DJ and I had a slump going on at the same time. Except, he was still getting paid thousands and thousands of dollars and I was, well, wasn't.

Another softball moment. It was a windy day one game. I played center field. I had about three or four hits out to me one inning, and the wind would take the ball a lot further than expected. Naturally, because of this wind thing, I couldn't get to the ball in time. So my coach yells from the dugout, "KINSEY! CATCH THE BALL!!!"

I thought to myself, you come out here and try and catch the ball. It's not as easy as it looks. I have a lot of field to cover on top of this frickin' wind blowing the ball every which way. Does it look like I'm trying not to catch the ball??.

So anyway, this post probably sounds like a rant, but I loved high school sports...really, I did. It was just those few moments (which as I look back on them, have made me a better player) that weren't about the game so much as about politics or just about winning.

To me, that's not what sports are all about. It's about love for the game, diving for a ball on the gym floor, getting an ACE and celebrating in the middle of the court, hitting a double, throwing out the runner at home, and (as weird as this sounds) getting hit by a pitch and running down the line to first base where the assistant coach would say, "Pain is temporary, Pride is forever."

Then I would think, yeah, but that really hurt.

I'm Promoting My Sister

My sister, Tyne, has always had an eye for fashion. Recently, she's taken up necklace making.

Tyne and me (a couple of years ago)

And she's really good at it! She made me a necklace for graduation and I love it.

Check out her website: http://tynebodennecklaces.blogspot.com/

You won't be disappointed.

P.S. I created her logo ;)

Wednesday Musings: Take Eight

Have you ever felt needed so much that you want to scream? I had that feeling today, but now I'm okay :)

Slams the Door turned 22 yesterday. I wasn't able to provide her with a proper cake, so I took out a couple of Fudge Rounds and stuck two matches in them. I wasn't able to provide proper birthday candles either.

Slams the Door and her Fudge Round "Cake"

I dyed my hair yesterday. It's darker than my original hair color, but I reallyreallyreally like it :) I'll post a picture of it next week sometime.

I'm very independent, VERY independent. I don't know why either.

Did anyone see the season finale of House on Monday??? It was amazing!!! I think I'm in love with Hugh Laurie.

On Sunday, I went and saw A Nightmare on Elm Street in theaters. Wow, job well done my friends. I give that movie a standing ovation for recreating a classic horror film in good taste. (Sidenote: This was the first time I went and saw an actual "scary" movie in the theater. I was nervous that I was going to scream, but I didn't) I jumped and threw my hands in the air instead.

I want to lay down in the grass

As I ran this afternoon in the hot sun of 72 degree Minnesota weather, I yearned to take a break and lay down in the soft green grass of a white house on the corner of 7th of Olmstead. How nice it would be to have a yard right now. My apartment "yard" is trimmed too short with sticks and weeds and empty beer cans. I do not yearn to lay in that grass.

So I ran to the beat of Katrina and the Waves, Carrie Underwood, and Foreigner until I reached the park. There I sat and watched the turtle and crane statues shoot water out of their mouths into the pool. I pulled out my pink earphones and listened to the water splash, the cars on the street, and the birds sing. If I had a penny with me, I would've tossed it in and made a wish.

Music Monday - Wrong Baby Wrong

"Wrong Baby Wrong" by the lovely Martina McBride.

I've never participated in Music Monday before, but I couldn't really think of anything to write today, so I thought I'd let this song do it for me ;)