Sunday was picturesque, sunny, and warm. It was literally the perfect day to walk around outside all day.
Molly had decided that she wanted to spend some quality family time with Jeremy and she knew that I wanted to spend some quality time with David. So, I woke up early that morning and took the train myself back to Jessica's apartment while Molly stayed to spend the day with her cousin.
David met me at the station. We waited for a bit at the apartment where Laura made us omelets. Without exaggeration they were some of the prettiest omelets I've ever seen, and they were the first Laura had ever made! The first time I made omletes they definitely did not look like that. That girl's got talent.
Eventually, David and I left and spent the afternoon walking hand in hand up and down Michigan Avenue. We got free chocolate at Ghiradelli's and Hershey's, looked at foreign Harry Potter covers in a European book store, perused a photography gallery, explored the 4 story Borders, rode the escalators in the Water Tower mall, and played in the Lego store (which was so cool!!). We also stood beside the river, watched a one man band, and saw this fascinating building that had rocks from all over the world embedded in it.
David bought me lunch at Einsteins and we just sat and talked for a long time. It was perfect because a patch of rain came right as we went in and cleared up by the time we left. :)
We met up with Jessica and Laura back at the apartment and left again to get coffee. I was salty because they gave me a hot chocolate when I ordered a hot chai, but the saltiness soon dissolved as Laura and David rocked out loud to "That's not My Name" (or whatever it's called) by the TingTings. Priceless.
The saddest thing about such incredible days is that they have to come to an end. David and Laura took me to Union Station, where after surviving a communication snafu, I met Molly to catch out Amtrak back to Lafayette. I gave a giant hug and quick goodbye-I'm-going-to-miss-you-like-crazy to David. Molly and I ran and jumped onto our train and we were gone...
Monday, June 14, 2010
A Tall Glass of Water: Chicago Day 2
Saturday morning, our second day in Chicago, we watched the rain fall outside the windows of Nathan's apartment until around lunch time. The clouds cleared up and Nathan, Anka, Molly, and I all jumped on a metro train to Jeremy's side of town.
With Jeremy we hopped a few more buses to a local culinary legend: Hot Doug's. When we arrived at this hot dog stand the line wrapped out the door and almost a block down the sidewalk. I figured, if this many people are willing to wait this long for a hot dog, it must be good right? Molly and I passed the time mostly by talking with Jeremy, who has a great sense of humor. A moth came and landed on his chest and then flew away. He said "Ah, moths. They come and go out of your life so quickly." I added, "And steal your heart away." The three of us lamented this fact for several minutes and then laughed until we couldn't breathe.
Sure enough Hot Doug's food was amazing and worth the hour and a half wait. The best part though was catching the waiter dancing with a tray to "Dancing Queen". He stopped dancing and looked at me sheepishly when he saw me watching. He said, "I guess that was kinda weird huh?" I replied, "No, that was amazing!"
After Hot Dog's it was that strange goodbye to Nathan and Anka where Molly and I followed Jeremy into the middle of the street. Molly, Jeremy, and I critiqued Food Network chefs at Jeremy's until dinner time. Then, Molly and I caught the L train to go meet up with David Tollefsen at his older sister's apartment.
David's older sister, Jessica, is married and lives in an apartment right across the street from Moody Bible Institute. How cool is that? Molly and I rendezvoused with them successfully there. It felt so good to have the freedom to navigate on our own! I was a bit nervous to meet Jessica and her husband John for the first time, but it turned out I had no need to be.
That evening with David's family was like a tall glass of cold water after a day in the Phoenix sun. They welcomed Molly and I in with open arms and showed us incredible hospitality. They seemed to be genuinely glad that we were there and interested in getting to know us. It was the most at peace and rested I felt the entire trip. And the interesting thing was you could tell they weren't trying to go above and beyond, they were just being themselves. Especially with the contrast of the night before, their lifestyle reflected Jesus to me in one of the most tangible ways I've ever experienced.
We grilled dinner out on the roof of their apartment building until dusk. I got to talk to John about his vision for planting a church in Tucson as well as quote about 1/4 of the Princess Bride. At some point I got to talk to Jessica as well about her classes at Moody. It was also cool to get to know David's younger sister, Laura, a little better and see her open up some and be goofy. :) And, of course, it was great to just to be able to hang out and talk with David.
After dinner, we all went swimming in their apartment pool and hot tub and played around like little kids. When it got late, Molly and I were just going to take the train home, but John and David offered to drive us back to Jeremy's. Again, they offered without so much as a hint of annoyance or incovenience. They didn't do it out of obligation, they did it because they cared about us and wanted to do it. Even though they had just met us. Amazing.
Before bed, Molly, Jeremy, and I played a cut-throat (almost literally) game of Sorry! with Jeremy's girlfriend, Beth. It was definitely worth staying up until 2:30 am for! Beth kicked all our butts though, but Jeremy came in from behind to make it a close second.
Molly and I figured out all our plans for the next day and crashed.
With Jeremy we hopped a few more buses to a local culinary legend: Hot Doug's. When we arrived at this hot dog stand the line wrapped out the door and almost a block down the sidewalk. I figured, if this many people are willing to wait this long for a hot dog, it must be good right? Molly and I passed the time mostly by talking with Jeremy, who has a great sense of humor. A moth came and landed on his chest and then flew away. He said "Ah, moths. They come and go out of your life so quickly." I added, "And steal your heart away." The three of us lamented this fact for several minutes and then laughed until we couldn't breathe.
Sure enough Hot Doug's food was amazing and worth the hour and a half wait. The best part though was catching the waiter dancing with a tray to "Dancing Queen". He stopped dancing and looked at me sheepishly when he saw me watching. He said, "I guess that was kinda weird huh?" I replied, "No, that was amazing!"
After Hot Dog's it was that strange goodbye to Nathan and Anka where Molly and I followed Jeremy into the middle of the street. Molly, Jeremy, and I critiqued Food Network chefs at Jeremy's until dinner time. Then, Molly and I caught the L train to go meet up with David Tollefsen at his older sister's apartment.
David's older sister, Jessica, is married and lives in an apartment right across the street from Moody Bible Institute. How cool is that? Molly and I rendezvoused with them successfully there. It felt so good to have the freedom to navigate on our own! I was a bit nervous to meet Jessica and her husband John for the first time, but it turned out I had no need to be.
That evening with David's family was like a tall glass of cold water after a day in the Phoenix sun. They welcomed Molly and I in with open arms and showed us incredible hospitality. They seemed to be genuinely glad that we were there and interested in getting to know us. It was the most at peace and rested I felt the entire trip. And the interesting thing was you could tell they weren't trying to go above and beyond, they were just being themselves. Especially with the contrast of the night before, their lifestyle reflected Jesus to me in one of the most tangible ways I've ever experienced.
We grilled dinner out on the roof of their apartment building until dusk. I got to talk to John about his vision for planting a church in Tucson as well as quote about 1/4 of the Princess Bride. At some point I got to talk to Jessica as well about her classes at Moody. It was also cool to get to know David's younger sister, Laura, a little better and see her open up some and be goofy. :) And, of course, it was great to just to be able to hang out and talk with David.
After dinner, we all went swimming in their apartment pool and hot tub and played around like little kids. When it got late, Molly and I were just going to take the train home, but John and David offered to drive us back to Jeremy's. Again, they offered without so much as a hint of annoyance or incovenience. They didn't do it out of obligation, they did it because they cared about us and wanted to do it. Even though they had just met us. Amazing.
Before bed, Molly, Jeremy, and I played a cut-throat (almost literally) game of Sorry! with Jeremy's girlfriend, Beth. It was definitely worth staying up until 2:30 am for! Beth kicked all our butts though, but Jeremy came in from behind to make it a close second.
Molly and I figured out all our plans for the next day and crashed.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Impressionism: Chicago Day 1
Our first day in Chicago, Friday, was a bit like an impressionist painting. If you stand back a bit and stroke your chin as you take in the whole picture, you see that is it quite stunning and captivating. A work of art. However, if you step closer all you can see are smudges and dots, some even in ugly colors. As a whole, Friday was an amazing day; however, some of the details were frustrating smudges.
Friday can also be related to impressionism because we went to the Chicago Art Institute and viewed several beautiful impressionist paintings. It was breathtaking to be surrounded by exquisite works by Monet and Renoir. My favorites were Chrysanthemums and Seascape by Renoir. We walked around for several hours and saw a special exhibit of Matisse work and other paintings, including Nighthawks.
After lunch we walked around Millenium Park, which is sort of the same idea as Central Park. We saw "The Bean" sculpture, the actual name of which is "Cloudgate". I feel kind of sorry for the artist who created such an awesome work with an elegant name, only to have it referred to as a bean all the time. Haha, oh well. We also walked past Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan. We saw lots of flowers and sculptures and Nathan made up "tour information" for us as we went along.
Since we had been walking the whole afternoon and Molly didn't get much sleep we went back to rest at Nathan and his wife Anka's apartment. They live on the 44th floor in the heart of the city. The view was incredible!! It also had a revolving door. Molly and I found all the revolving doors in the city to be quite a novelty. Our guides always just laughed at us.
Friday night we took a taxi to Alhambra's Palace, a Middle Eastern restaurant with live music and dancers. I had delicious chicken tagine. It was interesting though because they had Spanish and Mexican flaminco dancers as the entertainment for the evening. Middle Eastern restaurant...Spanish dancers...hmmm, ok. Molly's other cousin, Jeremy (Nathan's brother), also joined us for dinner along with some of Nathan's friends. It was a fascinating cultural experience.
So, as you can see the day was a good one that definitely gave us a taste of Chicago. But, here are the smudges. I had hoped to be able to rendevous with David on Friday, but at the last minute it didn't work out timing and distance-wise, which was disappointing. I was very grateful to Nathan for being willing to take us around, but something about his attitude towards us made me feel dragged around like a 7 year old. I felt like he didn't trust us to figure anything out on our own and like he was bored of babysitting. This was not helped by the fact that after dinner we stayed at the restaurant for I would guess two more hours while Nathan proceeded to drink. You might know that I have bad experience personal issues with situations like that. Also, the music changed to blaring Middle Eastern music that prevented me from being able to hear Molly even if she was shouting next to me. When we finally arrived back at the apartment I slept on the couch in a jacket with a rolled up t-shirt as a pillow. These parts of the experience made me feel trapped, smothered, awkward, unwanted, and disrespected.
That's why I like the metaphor, though it might be stretched a little, of the impressionist painting. My overall impression of Chicago itself was good and I was excited to move on to the next day.
Friday can also be related to impressionism because we went to the Chicago Art Institute and viewed several beautiful impressionist paintings. It was breathtaking to be surrounded by exquisite works by Monet and Renoir. My favorites were Chrysanthemums and Seascape by Renoir. We walked around for several hours and saw a special exhibit of Matisse work and other paintings, including Nighthawks.
After lunch we walked around Millenium Park, which is sort of the same idea as Central Park. We saw "The Bean" sculpture, the actual name of which is "Cloudgate". I feel kind of sorry for the artist who created such an awesome work with an elegant name, only to have it referred to as a bean all the time. Haha, oh well. We also walked past Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan. We saw lots of flowers and sculptures and Nathan made up "tour information" for us as we went along.
Since we had been walking the whole afternoon and Molly didn't get much sleep we went back to rest at Nathan and his wife Anka's apartment. They live on the 44th floor in the heart of the city. The view was incredible!! It also had a revolving door. Molly and I found all the revolving doors in the city to be quite a novelty. Our guides always just laughed at us.
Friday night we took a taxi to Alhambra's Palace, a Middle Eastern restaurant with live music and dancers. I had delicious chicken tagine. It was interesting though because they had Spanish and Mexican flaminco dancers as the entertainment for the evening. Middle Eastern restaurant...Spanish dancers...hmmm, ok. Molly's other cousin, Jeremy (Nathan's brother), also joined us for dinner along with some of Nathan's friends. It was a fascinating cultural experience.
So, as you can see the day was a good one that definitely gave us a taste of Chicago. But, here are the smudges. I had hoped to be able to rendevous with David on Friday, but at the last minute it didn't work out timing and distance-wise, which was disappointing. I was very grateful to Nathan for being willing to take us around, but something about his attitude towards us made me feel dragged around like a 7 year old. I felt like he didn't trust us to figure anything out on our own and like he was bored of babysitting. This was not helped by the fact that after dinner we stayed at the restaurant for I would guess two more hours while Nathan proceeded to drink. You might know that I have bad experience personal issues with situations like that. Also, the music changed to blaring Middle Eastern music that prevented me from being able to hear Molly even if she was shouting next to me. When we finally arrived back at the apartment I slept on the couch in a jacket with a rolled up t-shirt as a pillow. These parts of the experience made me feel trapped, smothered, awkward, unwanted, and disrespected.
That's why I like the metaphor, though it might be stretched a little, of the impressionist painting. My overall impression of Chicago itself was good and I was excited to move on to the next day.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Planes, trains, and automobiles...
The stages of my journey to Chicago were as follows:
1) Shuttle from Flagstaff to Phoenix at 4:00am. Yuck! (Thank you so much Alida for giving me a ride to the parking lot!)
2) Plane from Sky Harbor to Cincinnati Airport via Delta Airlines. I had to wait in the airport for hooooouuuuurrsssss. But that was ok, because that way there was no stress about missing the flight (*cough* like going to St. Louis *cough*). I had a window seat, buuut it was rather bumpy the entire way. I don't do so well with that. I almost kissed the ground when we touched down at the Cincinnati Airport (which is in Kentucky actually, weird). Molly and her younger brother Cade came to pick me up. Yay Molly!!!! :D
3) Automobile from Cincinnati to the suburb West Chester with Molly and Cade. We ate at Chipotle and essentially got it for free because a lighting bolt struck right outside the building and knocked out the electric register. Sweet! I also shocked the heck out of Molly by pulling a sarcasm card and telling Cade to Eat it! when I suspected he didn't like one of my favorite movies. Haha. Molly and I also drove through our old neighborhood where we met on the bus in 2nd grade. :)
4) Automobile on Thursday afternoon from West Chester to Lafayette, Indiana. There was a slight foul up with Molly's fan belt, but soon we got that fixed by the local mechanic and were on our way. Molly was the official driver and I was the offical navigator. We both performed admirably and spent the few hours jamming to music and talking about boys, haha. :) We stayed at Molly's aunt and uncle's house. We ate at a restaurant called 9 Irish Brothers where I had amazing fish and chips! Molly's aunt also showed us around the college town and we got to see a little bit of Purdue. It reminded me a lot of a bigger version of NAU. I loved it. :)
5) Train (Amtrak) Friday morning from Lafayette to Chicago Union Station. Woke at 5:30 am for this one too, ugh. Haha, but Molly and I boarded without any fuss and the ride was quite comfortable. We watched the countryside roll past until it morphed into the skyscrapers of Chicago. Molly's cousin, Nathan, met us at the station and walked us to his apartment.
6) Buses, L trains, Metra trains, and taxis ( I think that's what they're called) all over the city. On Friday we spent the day in Nathan's care. His method of teaching us the local transportation system was to equip us with CTA cards that work on buses and the L and then to go places and have us follow. Get on this bus, get off, cross this street, run to this train, and you better follow or you'll get left behind!! We were so conditioned to this method that on Saturday, when Molly's other cousin, Jeremy, was our guide, he stepped out into the middle of the road and we just hopped off the curb and followed him. Turned out he was just looking down the street to see if the next bus was coming. He gave us the strangest look and we had to explain ourselves, haha. It was a great crash course though and we got to navigate by ourselves a couple times. Molly also got her first ride in a taxi when we took one to and from dinner with Nathan and his wife on Friday night. So yeah, all the transportation in itself was a great adventure. :)
Next up...our exploration of the city on Friday...
1) Shuttle from Flagstaff to Phoenix at 4:00am. Yuck! (Thank you so much Alida for giving me a ride to the parking lot!)
2) Plane from Sky Harbor to Cincinnati Airport via Delta Airlines. I had to wait in the airport for hooooouuuuurrsssss. But that was ok, because that way there was no stress about missing the flight (*cough* like going to St. Louis *cough*). I had a window seat, buuut it was rather bumpy the entire way. I don't do so well with that. I almost kissed the ground when we touched down at the Cincinnati Airport (which is in Kentucky actually, weird). Molly and her younger brother Cade came to pick me up. Yay Molly!!!! :D
3) Automobile from Cincinnati to the suburb West Chester with Molly and Cade. We ate at Chipotle and essentially got it for free because a lighting bolt struck right outside the building and knocked out the electric register. Sweet! I also shocked the heck out of Molly by pulling a sarcasm card and telling Cade to Eat it! when I suspected he didn't like one of my favorite movies. Haha. Molly and I also drove through our old neighborhood where we met on the bus in 2nd grade. :)
4) Automobile on Thursday afternoon from West Chester to Lafayette, Indiana. There was a slight foul up with Molly's fan belt, but soon we got that fixed by the local mechanic and were on our way. Molly was the official driver and I was the offical navigator. We both performed admirably and spent the few hours jamming to music and talking about boys, haha. :) We stayed at Molly's aunt and uncle's house. We ate at a restaurant called 9 Irish Brothers where I had amazing fish and chips! Molly's aunt also showed us around the college town and we got to see a little bit of Purdue. It reminded me a lot of a bigger version of NAU. I loved it. :)
5) Train (Amtrak) Friday morning from Lafayette to Chicago Union Station. Woke at 5:30 am for this one too, ugh. Haha, but Molly and I boarded without any fuss and the ride was quite comfortable. We watched the countryside roll past until it morphed into the skyscrapers of Chicago. Molly's cousin, Nathan, met us at the station and walked us to his apartment.
6) Buses, L trains, Metra trains, and taxis ( I think that's what they're called) all over the city. On Friday we spent the day in Nathan's care. His method of teaching us the local transportation system was to equip us with CTA cards that work on buses and the L and then to go places and have us follow. Get on this bus, get off, cross this street, run to this train, and you better follow or you'll get left behind!! We were so conditioned to this method that on Saturday, when Molly's other cousin, Jeremy, was our guide, he stepped out into the middle of the road and we just hopped off the curb and followed him. Turned out he was just looking down the street to see if the next bus was coming. He gave us the strangest look and we had to explain ourselves, haha. It was a great crash course though and we got to navigate by ourselves a couple times. Molly also got her first ride in a taxi when we took one to and from dinner with Nathan and his wife on Friday night. So yeah, all the transportation in itself was a great adventure. :)
Next up...our exploration of the city on Friday...
Monday, May 31, 2010
Adventure is Out There!!
In less than two days, on Wednesday morning, I will be boarding a plane to Cincinnati, Ohio! Land of green grass, lightning bugs, and the Cone. It makes the Midwest part of my heart very happy. :) I'm going there to visit my best friend Molly. We have been friends since we met on the school bus in 2nd grade, when my family lived there in Cinci at the time. I haven't seen her in two years and I am stoked beyond belief to see her in two days!! :D
Over the weekend, Molly and I are going to gallivant into Chicago to enjoy the city life. It's both our fix of adventure for the summer before we both have to go back to work and (for Molly) school. So we're going to make the most of it. :)
Also, while in Chicago we will have several handsome young guides, two of which are Molly's cousins and one of which is the certain Mr. David Tollefsen. It's been several weeks since I've gotten to see him and it will be many many weeks before I get to see him again after that. So, I'm also super excited to spend time with him on his side of the country for a bit. ;)
I will update with stories of our adventures as they happen. Hopefully it will be as epic as Ferris Bueller's Day Off. :D
Over the weekend, Molly and I are going to gallivant into Chicago to enjoy the city life. It's both our fix of adventure for the summer before we both have to go back to work and (for Molly) school. So we're going to make the most of it. :)
Also, while in Chicago we will have several handsome young guides, two of which are Molly's cousins and one of which is the certain Mr. David Tollefsen. It's been several weeks since I've gotten to see him and it will be many many weeks before I get to see him again after that. So, I'm also super excited to spend time with him on his side of the country for a bit. ;)
I will update with stories of our adventures as they happen. Hopefully it will be as epic as Ferris Bueller's Day Off. :D
Pen Thieves, Marriage, Ritz Crackers, and Funny Faces
The majority of this summer I will be working in the Capital Assets office at NAU. I've been doing this job during school since I was a freshmen, so I know the ropes. However, while I am incredibly thankful for it, it can be mind numbingly boring. Answering phones, data entry, filing...all...day...long.
Things are looking up though because one of my best friends, Mr. Chris Huston, has started to work there for the summer as well. In just one week, I'm pretty sure I've laughed 'til I cried every single day.
Here are a few of the tales that I already have. I'm sure there will be plenty more where these came from.
Pen Thief: So one of the many jokes that Chris and I banter back and forth about is that he is a pen finder and I am a pen loser. I will explain this more another time, but essentially it means just that. Everywhere he goes he finds pens lying around and keeps them. Everywhere I go my pens disappear into thin air the way your socks do in the dryer. I always try to tease Chris that he is in fact a pen thief, but I've never really had sufficient ammunition until the other day.
Chris and I were walking out to the parking lot after work and he realized that he still had an office pen behind his ear! He had stolen it! "Pen thief! Pen thief!" I accused over and over. He then proceeded to threaten to stab me with the pen in order to silence me. I pointed out that it would be super ironic if I (a pen loser) died (the ultimate loss) by a pen. He also tried to trick me and Jenny Charvoz into taking the pen off his hands. No way was I going to become an accessory to his crime! We then made a deal that if he returned the pen the next day his slate would be clean and he would not be a pen thief.
He did return the pen the next day. However, he did end up participating in some rather "sketch" actions. I'm concerned that his pen thievery was just a gateway to worse behavior... ;)
Marriage: Friday I came into work wearing my brown Intervarsity shirt. I panicked for a moment when I walked in and noticed that Chris was wearing a shirt in a similar shade of brown. *sigh of relief* It wasn't the same one. However, Chris says "Woah, Rachel. I almost wore that same shirt today!" Weird.
Later, Chris and I are sitting at the front two desks and one of the carpenters asks us to make a purchase slip for him. Since Chris is new to this, I slide my chair over to help him. As we are working the carpenter says, "Hey are you two married to each other? I just noticed your rings." Chris has his actual wedding ring on, but all I'm wearing is a purity ring (though, granted it's on my left hand). Chris and I manage to remain calm and simply reply "No" and finish his purchase slip.
As soon as he's gone we look at each other and burst out laughing. "That was so awkward!!" Eventually we calm down, but a few minutes later Chris looks at me and says "What if we had been wearing the same shirt?? How incredibly awkward would that have been?!" Then we both completely cracked up again. Oh dear.
I think I'm going to have to wear my purity ring on my right hand now at work because this is the 3rd time I've had to awkwardly explain to people there that I'm not married. Or I could just see what crazy story happens next. :)
Ritz Crackers: One afternoon Chris was making small talk about how much he loves Ritz crackers. He said that they are his comfort food and he could eat a whole sleeve at once. I don't blame him, they are amazing. :)
Then he starts talking about how he had this one friend who made these desserts once with Ritz crackers...and peanut butter...and they were sooo good. But he couldn't remember who made them. I get a wicked grin on my face and ask "Did they have peanut butter in the middle?" "Yeah!" "And where they dipped in chocolate?" "Yeah, who made those? I bet it was Emily. It was Emily, right?" At this point all I can do is laugh and point at myself. Chris just says "What?"
"Me! It was me! I made the cookies!" I blurted out between laughing. Chris was like, "When?" "For your Super Bowl party" I responded. I still couldn't stop laughing.
Finally, Chris says "Rachel, it's not that funny." Then I remind him of a conversation we'd had about a month before about those same cookies. In that conversation, he didn't remember the cookies at all. In fact, I'd tried to explain them a few different ways and he still didn't remember them!! And now here he was blathering about how good they were to me and he doesn't even remember that I was the one who made them. Hilarious!
This best part though was he gets this look of recognition and embarassment on his face and says "Oh, yeah...I remember that conversation." Ha! Priceless. :D
The Face: So this story is harder to tell, because obviously you'd have to see the face for yourself. I think it's still worth a shot.
At the end of the day on Monday I was explaining to Chris and the other new student worker how to do their daily time sheets. It's pretty straight forward, but as I finish I look over at Chris and he has this incredibly exaggerated look of confusion and incredulation. It looked like a cartoon character trying to express "What?! You're kidding me. We have to do it this way? That's so tedious and weird that I'm insulted." I assumed that Chris was doing this to make fun of me, but it was literally the funniest face I've ever seen him make so I busted up laughing.
Chris changes his face to just plain confusion and says "Why are you laughing?" In between gasps of laughter I manage "Your face was priceless." Chris' responds with "What face?"
Now I'm pretty good at telling when Chris is joking and when he's dead serious, and at this moment he was dead serious. He didn't mean to make that face at all. So now I can't breathe and I'm wiping tears from my eyes because I'm laughing so hard.
Chris tries to defend himself by saying "I wasn't making a weird face!" And I say, "You wouldn't know, you weren't the one that saw it." He says "Well it was my face and I'm pretty sure I know what my own face does." My response. "Well obviously you don't because I saw it and it was ridiculous! So don't be salty." Haha, point for Rachel!! :)
So there ya go, tune in next time for more ridiculous stories from Capital Assets. :P
Things are looking up though because one of my best friends, Mr. Chris Huston, has started to work there for the summer as well. In just one week, I'm pretty sure I've laughed 'til I cried every single day.
Here are a few of the tales that I already have. I'm sure there will be plenty more where these came from.
Pen Thief: So one of the many jokes that Chris and I banter back and forth about is that he is a pen finder and I am a pen loser. I will explain this more another time, but essentially it means just that. Everywhere he goes he finds pens lying around and keeps them. Everywhere I go my pens disappear into thin air the way your socks do in the dryer. I always try to tease Chris that he is in fact a pen thief, but I've never really had sufficient ammunition until the other day.
Chris and I were walking out to the parking lot after work and he realized that he still had an office pen behind his ear! He had stolen it! "Pen thief! Pen thief!" I accused over and over. He then proceeded to threaten to stab me with the pen in order to silence me. I pointed out that it would be super ironic if I (a pen loser) died (the ultimate loss) by a pen. He also tried to trick me and Jenny Charvoz into taking the pen off his hands. No way was I going to become an accessory to his crime! We then made a deal that if he returned the pen the next day his slate would be clean and he would not be a pen thief.
He did return the pen the next day. However, he did end up participating in some rather "sketch" actions. I'm concerned that his pen thievery was just a gateway to worse behavior... ;)
Marriage: Friday I came into work wearing my brown Intervarsity shirt. I panicked for a moment when I walked in and noticed that Chris was wearing a shirt in a similar shade of brown. *sigh of relief* It wasn't the same one. However, Chris says "Woah, Rachel. I almost wore that same shirt today!" Weird.
Later, Chris and I are sitting at the front two desks and one of the carpenters asks us to make a purchase slip for him. Since Chris is new to this, I slide my chair over to help him. As we are working the carpenter says, "Hey are you two married to each other? I just noticed your rings." Chris has his actual wedding ring on, but all I'm wearing is a purity ring (though, granted it's on my left hand). Chris and I manage to remain calm and simply reply "No" and finish his purchase slip.
As soon as he's gone we look at each other and burst out laughing. "That was so awkward!!" Eventually we calm down, but a few minutes later Chris looks at me and says "What if we had been wearing the same shirt?? How incredibly awkward would that have been?!" Then we both completely cracked up again. Oh dear.
I think I'm going to have to wear my purity ring on my right hand now at work because this is the 3rd time I've had to awkwardly explain to people there that I'm not married. Or I could just see what crazy story happens next. :)
Ritz Crackers: One afternoon Chris was making small talk about how much he loves Ritz crackers. He said that they are his comfort food and he could eat a whole sleeve at once. I don't blame him, they are amazing. :)
Then he starts talking about how he had this one friend who made these desserts once with Ritz crackers...and peanut butter...and they were sooo good. But he couldn't remember who made them. I get a wicked grin on my face and ask "Did they have peanut butter in the middle?" "Yeah!" "And where they dipped in chocolate?" "Yeah, who made those? I bet it was Emily. It was Emily, right?" At this point all I can do is laugh and point at myself. Chris just says "What?"
"Me! It was me! I made the cookies!" I blurted out between laughing. Chris was like, "When?" "For your Super Bowl party" I responded. I still couldn't stop laughing.
Finally, Chris says "Rachel, it's not that funny." Then I remind him of a conversation we'd had about a month before about those same cookies. In that conversation, he didn't remember the cookies at all. In fact, I'd tried to explain them a few different ways and he still didn't remember them!! And now here he was blathering about how good they were to me and he doesn't even remember that I was the one who made them. Hilarious!
This best part though was he gets this look of recognition and embarassment on his face and says "Oh, yeah...I remember that conversation." Ha! Priceless. :D
The Face: So this story is harder to tell, because obviously you'd have to see the face for yourself. I think it's still worth a shot.
At the end of the day on Monday I was explaining to Chris and the other new student worker how to do their daily time sheets. It's pretty straight forward, but as I finish I look over at Chris and he has this incredibly exaggerated look of confusion and incredulation. It looked like a cartoon character trying to express "What?! You're kidding me. We have to do it this way? That's so tedious and weird that I'm insulted." I assumed that Chris was doing this to make fun of me, but it was literally the funniest face I've ever seen him make so I busted up laughing.
Chris changes his face to just plain confusion and says "Why are you laughing?" In between gasps of laughter I manage "Your face was priceless." Chris' responds with "What face?"
Now I'm pretty good at telling when Chris is joking and when he's dead serious, and at this moment he was dead serious. He didn't mean to make that face at all. So now I can't breathe and I'm wiping tears from my eyes because I'm laughing so hard.
Chris tries to defend himself by saying "I wasn't making a weird face!" And I say, "You wouldn't know, you weren't the one that saw it." He says "Well it was my face and I'm pretty sure I know what my own face does." My response. "Well obviously you don't because I saw it and it was ridiculous! So don't be salty." Haha, point for Rachel!! :)
So there ya go, tune in next time for more ridiculous stories from Capital Assets. :P
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Common Oddities
So at the beginning of our drive back from Colorado Springs to Flagstaff, I saw a very fat Chihuahua curled up sleeping behind the neck of a driver. At that moment I knew it was going to be a very strange trip and began to keep a list of weird things we saw. Here are the results.
Common Oddities:
Common Oddities:
- Fat Chihuahua curled up sleeping behind driver's neck
- Llamas!
- 2nd Chihuahua sitting on its driver's lap
- A three man band playing on the access road running parallell to the highway. It was in the middle of nowhere and there was no audience.
- A moose with wings on a truck mudflap
- Flashing signs in New Mexico that said: Superblitz! Cinco De Mayo. Cops everywhere!
- A cow that turned its head to watch us as we passed by
- A herd of broken down vans clustered in the woods
- A cresent moon (I think that's the proper term) that appeared to eclipse. It was in fact only a fake eclipse (fauxclipse), but we still don't know what obscured it from vision.
- The tuxedoed gentleman in the parking lot when we dropped off Dahlia:
Tuxedo man: "Did you guys just come back from a trip?"
Dahlia: "Yeah, we just got back from camp in Colorado Springs."
Tuxedo man: "That's cool."
Dahlia: "Where are you off to?" (referring to his garb)
Tuxedo man: "Oh I don't really know. My life is an adventure right now. I don't really know where I'm headed next. "
Dahlia: "So you're just dressed in a tuxedo for no reason?"
Tuxedo man: "No, I was a groomsman in a wedding earlier today. Hopefully I can find my friend now."
Dahlia: "Oh, good luck with that."
Tuxedo man: "Thanks" (he walks off into the night)
Krista (to Dahlia): "Do you know him?"
Dahlia: "No."
It was an interesting trip indeed. :)
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