A Story

Once upon a time there was a girl who thought of a great thing to blog about. But she had to find the perfect picture to go along with it. She knew this picture was somewhere in the large bin of pictures waiting to be organized. So she started digging through the pictures, and in the process found many that needed to go on the blog.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who liked to dress up in crazy outfits. Because that is what you did in the dorm after curfew.

That is also a fun game to play while visiting friends in San Francisco.

And it’s also fun to dress up on the last day of school with a best friend who you called (and still call) fatty.

This girl who liked to play crazy cleaned up nicely when there was someone else to do her make-up, hair, and pick her outfit, as evidenced by this picture with the beautiful Hillary.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who went to ACU. She made wonderful friends and memories, including the time she did ear candling with her roomate…

and the time she was at the bottom of an Annalee and Sara Kate pile.

And then after she moved to California, she got this postcard from Annalee. It made her laugh the day it came in the mail, it graced her refrigerator for years, and it once again made her laugh tonight.

Once upon a time there was a girl who married the love of her life and followed him to California. She bought a surfboard at a rummage sale. She felt real cool until she went in the water and discovered that surfing on a short board is a lot like trying to surf on a beach ball. Her dreams of joining the cast of Blue Crush were shattered. Luckily, she made some friends who liked to surf, so she got her chance to ride the waves a few times on a long board.

This California college girl changed her major several times before deciding she wanted to be a P.E teacher/coach. She even had the wardrobe to match.

But God had other plans, and now she is a mama. And now she needs a bathing suit that looks like this.

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This is what happens when D is out of town and I drink a large coke at 5:00 p.m. I get super distracted.
Now, let’s get to the pictures that started this whole thing. The ones I went looking for and eventually found at the very bottom of the bin.

Once upon a time, Ryan asked Derek if we wanted to vacation with him and Maggie. Since Ryan is his best friend in the world, of course he said yes. So we went to Vegas with them. Now, Derek and I had been to Vegas once before, and it has gone down in our history as some of the worst, most unpleasant days we have ever spent together. It was the worst vacation ever. First, we stayed in perhaps the most ghetto hotel on the strip (Circus, Circus). Second, we were poor and cheap. Vegas is not fun without a little bit of money to spend. We got in the biggest fight ever over spending $10 to ride the roller coaster on New York, New York. It was hotter than you know what the week we were there. We walked for miles. It was pretty much just a miserable trip all around. So we were hesitant to take another trip there, but since it’s D’s BFF, we went for it. But this time we got tickets for some shows, decided we could spend some of our tax refund money, and stayed in a nicer hotel (NY, NY) And D promised me I could ride the roller coaster this time around.

We had a great time. Seriously, it was such a fun vacation. I think it was the first time I had ever spent any time with Maggie, and we totally hit it off. D and I decided that maybe Vegas wasn’t so bad after all. We just needed to do it with the right people.

I really have so many fun memories of that trip. Like Maggie winning a bunch of money from a nickel slot, a guy placing bets for me while I rolled for him at the craps table, and then insisting I keep the winnings, playing the horsie game at one of the casinos… (ok, it sounds like all we did was gamble, which couldn’t be farther from the truth! But Ryan did teach us all how to play craps, which was fun. You gotta remember that Ryan is a minister so we weren’t doing anything too crazy at all!)

Anyway, my most favorite memory of Vegas. Perhaps one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me. I think Maggie might still be a little jealous (*wink*). We went to see the Blue Man Group, and I got pulled up on stage and I was part of the show! It was so cool. It was in front of a pretty big audience (I would guess at least a couple hundred), and let’s just be honest…if there is one thing I love, it’s attention! I don’t even know how I got picked. The Blue Men were walking around the audience doing this freaky staring thing, and when they came over to us, I just stared right back at him. I was really fascinated by their paint and he had the biggest eyes ever. So he pulled my arm and I stood up. Then the other two came over and started walking me towards the stage. I remember lots of clapping. I got on stage and I just went along with them. I really don’t remember exactly what I did, but the audience was laughing. It was so cool! At the end of my bit, bananas squirted out of this thing they had put on me, and they took this picture and handed it to me.

After the show, all these people kept coming up to me because they recognized me. Lots thought that I was a planned part of the show, which just proves that I was actually really fabulous. It was my movie star moment, and I will never forget it!

Ryan and Maggie, let’s go on vacation together again. That was so fun!
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Remind me not to drink that much coke again at night. It’s 11:47 and I am still completely wired.