New Mexico with The Fam Try #2

So I'm going to try embedding the New Mexico video from facebook since the other one is such crappy quality. Maybe it will just be better to embed it...? We shall see.

8/18 1985-2010

Top Reasons It Is Awesome My Sister is 25.

She’s still got a lot of time to live in fun places I can go visit.

Now she is the same age I “was” at a bar in Nice!

And are both finally closer to thirty than we are to twenty! Misery loves company!

If we ever have to rent a car, she can still do the driving and I can still do the drinking!

Catching a Laina-saurus is still just as funny as it was when she was 24.

In dog years, she’s still only 3 ½, and she sure was a cute 3 ½ year old.

25 won’t stop us from going to things like Finding Nemo and The Princess and The Frog in theatres!

She is still in school, which leads me to believe one day she’ll be able to repay me.

If she is 25, then Zak must be almost 21!

It’s unlikely that this will cause her to stop randomly translating what I say into French just for practice.

She’s still going to love the card and present I sent to Boston so it will be there waiting on her.

She’ll still be able to drink her weight in iced coffee.

We will all still hear the words “inappropriate” and “unfortunate” at the most opportune moments.

Ok, seriously. That list was fun and all, but there’s too much stuff on there that involves all of us, and really, it’s her birthday. My sister is the best. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be stuck between me and Zak, but Renée does it. And loves it. She does whatever she wants, or whatever other people want, and is happy. She can hang out with anyone, talk to anyone, and quickly become basic friends with anyone. A good example of this: she came up to Asheville a few weekends ago and was forced to hang out with me and a bunch of people I had just run through the water drainage system with for like 6 hours. She pulled it off just fine. She has so many friends. Beyond that, she has close friends everywhere. Renée has been in more weddings than anyone I know and probably will ever know. She handles horrid situations with grace and poise and is fantastic at making everyone else comfortable. She’s always got your back, even when you’re wrong, and even though she says I’m the smartest a lot, I’m pretty sure she is a lot smarter than I am.

My sister is one of the funniest people I know and I wish we weren’t both so damn busy so we could talk and text more often. Renée is also one of the most responsible and mature people I know. She is both respectful and respectable. She listens to great music, because she’ll take mine, Dad’s, and Zak’s advice on it, but also go off and find her own. She is open to any possibility.

It is shocking to me to know how much she has changed in the 25 years that I have known her. This is neither good nor bad, though I’m sure in some way, she’d say it’s only good. I simply mean that it is so interesting to see the progression that she has gone through to become the incredible woman that she is today. It’s hard to even remember sometimes that she’s had several unfortunate haircuts when now she is always gorgeous, or that she once punched a boy in the face for being a jerk when now…well I guess if he really deserved it, she’d probably still do that. It’s hard to recall what her voice used to sound like, which is why we call them Laina-sauruses and not Renée-osauruses, when now she is so well spoken and eloquent. I still giggle when I think of some of the nicknames she gave herself and the ones she grudgingly embraced, when now her beautiful name fits her so perfectly.

I am in so many ways jealous of my sister. She followed in a lot of my footsteps and then suddenly branched out. But it’s more a sense of pride than anything. I love knowing I have seen the entire life of this beautiful person.

I got back to myself there for a minute. Forgive me.

If you know my sister, count yourself among the lucky ones. I do.

Happy birthday, Renée Alaia. I love you.

It's Happening...

I am super excited about this weekend (Hey imagine that! I am excited about a weekend!). Why, you ask? Excellent question! Because there will be a lot of this:

Definitely some of this:

Probably a bit of this:

And more than likely a little of this:

HA! FUN!

I Love My Sister

Renee surprises me constantly. She always surprises me in a good way, but every now and then, it's not only good, it's also hilarious. This just happened:

7:28 - I see that Renee is calling and get excited. We're both so busy that we rarely have time to talk.

7:28 1/2 - Hello? Hello? Reneeeeeeeeee? She beeps when I am supposedly already connected to her.

7:28 3/4 - I say "Hey. That was funny. You beeped in on a call I was having with you."

7:29 - Jane: "Stoptalkingineedyourhelpohmygodthetoiletisfloodinghowdoistopthetoiletfromflooding?!?!"

This continues. Basically, her bathroom is flooded and there is still water coming out of the toilet.

7:30 - I tell Renee to open the top of the toilet and make sure the hole the water goes down through is covered up to stop the toilet from running.

7:30 - "OHMYGOD is the top of the toilet supposed to be filling up with water?"

7:31 - "Why would I know how toilets work?"

7:32 - The toilet has stopped running and therefore stopped leaking water onto the floor.

7:32 1/2 - "This is so not what I wanted to have happen tonight. I have wine and junk food and I probably don't have to go to school in the morning."

7:33 - Renee informs me that she called everyone she could think of, including her ex-boyfriend, and no one answered. I am offended that she did not call me before her ex-boyfriend. She says she didn't think I would know any more about toilets than she does. Then she says "Do you think paper towels are okay to clean this up with?" Then, "We don't even own a mop."

7:34 - She settles on using her yoga towels to mop up the water after I convince her that toilet water is not the same as sewage water.

7:40 - We have been chatting and catching up when I have her go back to the toilet to try flushing it to see if it's just a problem with the handle or something.

7:41 - "Oh my god it's flooding the bathroom again!"

7:42 - I instruct her to again make sure the rubber stopper is covering the hole and then ask if the toilet bowl is full of water. Response? "I can't see it; I left the top covering the bowl." It was, of course, and I end up explaining how a toilet actually works, where the water comes from, etc.

7:43 - "This is why I need a boyfriend! Seriously."

7:45 - "Maybe you should try plunging the toilet. I think that's the only way at this point to get the toilet to flush without filling it back up with water and flooding again. You need to get that water out of the bowl." This fails to work.

7:45 - Renee's solution? "I'm just going to clean up the water and wait for someone else to come home and take care of this."

I can't believe my sister had no idea what to even look at when the toilet flooded. Seriously.

Throughout all of this, I was attempting to make dinner (veggie chili) and do laundry. Let me explain why this is kind of a big deal; the washing machine that our landlord provides in the house is the oldest washing machine I have ever seen. I'm not exaggerating. You know those stores you see sometimes that house old electronic stuff and often have a bunch of old stoves, refrigerators, washers and the like just piled up all willy nilly? Those stores kind of intimidate me. Our washing machine is very much like what you see in those stores.

Anyway, our washing machine also doesn't work quite right. It works, but you have to shut it off, turn the knob to the next thing, and turn it back on. It doesn't go through all the motions on its own. It also makes a TON of noise, especially anytime it is spinning. It kind of shakes the whole house. This freaks my dog out.

Normally, Jack is out, running around, playing, or looking out the window for a cat or squirrel to bark at, but he responds very much to my emotions. If I'm on the phone with Renee and my voice is somewhat frantic, he will lose it a little bit and hide under the bed. The combination of me being somewhat frantic and the washing machine shaking the whole house reduced him to this:

He is as far under the futon as he could possibly be, back against the wall, on a blanket that he must have pulled under there with him. Do please observe that he also took his favorite toy with him on his retreat. It's like his own personal survival kit: a blanket and a toy. It's been about an hour and a half now and I still can't make him get up and come out, which is crazy because he never goes under the futon except for a second if a toy got tossed under it inadvertently. He also very rarely goes this long without being next to me or following me around as any of my friends can tell you. He is a little attached.

I guess he is really upset about Renee's toilet.

A Fresh Start

Recent events required me to detach myself from any previous records of my comings, goings, and doings. Here's to a new beginning.

I've moved into a house in West Asheville with Sarah So far it's going great. I of course brought Jack with me. :)

We had our first party a couple of weeks ago. It was an Ugly Sweater Party and it went quite well.

Sarah and me.

And my good friend Sam and Me. Sammy had a whole outfit. My horrible teacher sweater was quite fitting.

Other than that, nothing has been up. School is in and everything that entails is back of course. The difference this year so far has been that I FINALLY have far less planning to do and actually have time to read stuff FOR FUN! Incredible! I will try to keep this up to date with that as you all know how I love to share good books. Most recently I enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and I am currently reading The Road.

I went to my first college football game a couple of weekends ago at App State in Boone. It was totally fun. There is an unfortunate lack of pictures, however...

Thanksgiving with La Familia was fantastic, though my sister, Renee was super missed. Actually, the funniest thing happened. We hit pretty late on Thursday night and we're all sitting around watching a movie and I realize I want a rum ball. Duh. It's November. Of course I want a rum ball, but Mom hides them. Renee is always the one who finds them. My brother, Zak and I hadn't even thought to look. Mom had to tell me where they were. It was totally disappointing.

And that's where I will stop for now. I think that about covers it anyway. :)