Happy Halloween!

I've used this photo before in a Halloween post, but this week has been insanely busy, and I didn't have time to scan another one. Happy Halloween! Here's me (the tv), and my friends Suzi (the bear) and Kristin (the crayon) in our fifth grade Halloween parade.

Props to my dad for making the awesome costume! It's blue because I thought it should be. I never understood why electronics had to be black or silver, and finally, it seems the world has agreed with me. My new laptop is green!

Horse Cop!

I love police horses. I don't really know why - I would be scared to get too close to one. But I saw this one today in my neighborhood so I snapped the best darn picture the camera phone would take from across the street. Um, can you even see the horse?

When I was about 8, my friend Suzi's mom got pulled over by a cop on a horse for making an illegal left turn. I said, "What? You were in a car! Why didn't you just drive away? You could go faster than the horse!"

And then I got a lecture on how we respect authority, whether they are on horseback or not.

I will remember this if I ever get pulled over by a cop on a horse. Promise.

My Favorite Game

I have always enjoyed a good game of "guess how old I am." I always surprise people with my real age, my whole life. When I was 16 people thought I was about 12. When I was 21 people thought I was 16.

Although, to be honest, I only liked this when it was the game. Any other time I would get super offended that I was 16 and people thought I was 12. Or that I was 28 and still getting carded. Or that people thought my sisters and I were triplets. Triplets! I am 2 and 4 years older than them! I can't help it if they grew taller than me practically from infancy.

But this weekend, in Dublin, Elizabeth and I met this Irish guy called Declan in a pub. Who put my age at 20, and only believed my real age (32, mind you) when I offered to show him proof.

20. Seriously.

Maybe I should move to Ireland.

(pictures... what few I took... coming later, maybe this weekend.)

World's Fair, 1984

(I got a scanner for my birthday! Here is my first scanned photo.)

In 1984, the World's Fair was in New Orleans. I went with my family. I don't remember all that much about it, considering I was 9 years old, but I do remember this photo. Behind us is a Space Shuttle. Yeah, that's cool and all, but what I remember is that there's another cousin who was present that day, not pictured here. My cousin Lee.

Lee apparently did not want her picture taken. So much that she screamed and yelled and when my uncle tried to pick her up and carry her into the photo, she bit him.

So here we have me, my sister Leslie, my sister Amanda, my cousin Katie, and in the front, my cousin Anne Yvette. I'm pretty sure Anne Yvette's brother Rick was also there that day, but he was a baby and maybe he was napping or something when we took this picture.

The other thing I remember about this day is that isn't my dress I'm wearing. It's Katie's, and I think Amanda is wearing one of Lee's. I can't remember why we weren't wearing our own clothes that day! The green visor, though? All mine.

I also think this might be the last photo where I am taller than all the other kids. As you can see, Leslie was quickly gaining on me, even though she's two years younger. They're all taller than me now.

Summertime

It's pretty hot here already. I think I missed spring altogether somehow, with my traveling back and forth. I certainly missed Washington spring. I maybe experienced Brussels spring, but only for one week.

Hot summers make me think of how I spent my summers when I was little. A lot of the summers I spent at my grandparents' houses, in Texas and Louisiana. My Texas grandparents had a lake house and when my grandpa got home we would swim in the lake. Wearing life jackets. Which wasn't that great for swimming but maybe kept us alive, I'm not really sure. My New Orleans grandparents had a pool in the backyard. It seemed to me that every afternoon, right when I wanted to get into the pool, there would be a thunderstorm. But I still spent enough time in the pool one summer that my black and white striped bathing suit made me have a striped tan on my stomach. I'm pretty sure I have a photo of me in that suit at that pool - I'll try to post it for you guys maybe this weekend.

For some reason, though, the summer pool memory that keeps coming to me today is the memory of going to the pool with my friend Suzi and our sisters. We didn't do this often. But I remember running around the pool deck (which wasn't allowed), doing headstands under the water, and this red pitcher her mom kept lemonade in for us.

Last summer, I met up with Suzi and her family on the beach in Delaware. They still had the red pitcher! Only this time, in addition to lemonade, there was some vodka in there too. Grown up lemonade, maybe!

Ice Cream

Today is free cone day at Ben & Jerry's. If you're around a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop and don't mind waiting in line, you should stop in. It's free. Free ice cream. Awesome.

When I was little, sometimes we would go to Baskin-Robbins for a treat. I always wanted bubble gum ice cream, but I was never allowed to have it. I think my mom thought it was gross. Mostly because you were left with two options. 1. Chewing the gum as you found it, which means by the end of the cone, you've got a giant mouthful of gum, or 2. spitting the pieces of gum into a cup and saving them for later, which may seem appealing to an 8 year old, but now I can see why it would be so disgusting to watch.

But. My parents used to send us to our grandparents' houses for the summers when we were little. My dad's parents would let us do whatever we weren't allowed to do at home. Well. Not whatever whatever. I mean, things like getting Happy Meals from McDonald's and eating Honey Nut Cheerios. All I would have to do would be tell Grandpa I wanted bubble gum ice cream, and I would be sure to have it at least once on the trip.

Traveling without parents does have its advantages, after all. Even if those advantages are in the form of Care Bear waffles and disgusting flavors of ice cream.