Curve Ball

I thought I'd write something today insightful today about the Obama inauguration and how happy I am. But people that are much smarter than I am have got that one covered. So then I thought I'd write about my cat cheating on his girlfriend (the story involves multiple cashmere sweaters and should have a soundtrack straight outta the '70s and maybe a pornstache on the cat). Or maybe I'd write about the freakin' snow pile still on the North side of our block despite almost 70 degree weather. But sometimes, life throws you a curve ball. 

I found out today that a guy I grew up with died in a plane crash last week just outside Wray, CO. He was deadheading on the flight so the FAA records initially only showed the pilot & copilot.  But it was confirmed this weekend that Zach was on the flight too and died in the crash.

I have such a jumble of memories of Zach - mostly from elementary school when I was crazy about him. I remember playing blocks in first grade when he told me he had a girlfriend. 

"Oh, yeah, who is your girlfriend?" I asked, trying to be cool and hide my massive disappointment.

"It's you." Zach said. 

 

A little presumptive, but whatever. I was all about being his girlfriend.  Which mostly meant that I let him catch me when it was boys chase girls on the playground and vice versa. But apparently that was serious enough for 6-year olds because our teacher, Ms. Furnace, introduced our parents to each other as the in-laws at Parent / Teacher conference night. Which, I mean, was inevitable since we were going to get married after high school. Zach was going to play for the Broncos and I was going to be a yuppy lawyer. I really wanted to be a yuppy. 

I remember him dressing as an Ewok for Halloween, a whole bunch of us trying to break dance at Christine's birthday party (a massive fail on my part), school plays, and just a lot of silliness (all set to a soundtrack of Michael Jackson back before he was a giant weirdo). By the time Zach and I were in high school we hung out with different crowds. But we still had a good giggle at high school graduation about our former plans to get married (at 6, high school seemed plenty old enough for marriage).

And really, I haven't seen Zach in a long, long time. Maybe 7 years. I didn't even recognize him in the news footage. But the 6-year old in me feels like I've lost my first boyfriend.

Zach was a good guy and my heart hurts for his family.

2009: A Preview

In 2009 I plan to:

1. Rock the world with my song stylings.
2. Get a post in the Obama administration as the "Princess of Awesome."
3. Accomplish all things awesome in said post.
4. Find a cure for my fear of heights and water plants.
5. Sell said cure and make a million billion dollars.
6. Travel somewhere cool (not for work).
7. Breathe in, and then breathe out.  Repeat 18,000 - 30,000 times per day.
8. Take on Venus & Serena Williams single-handedly and show them how tennis is played.
9. Tell people what I'm really thinking.
10. Teach my cat to clean his own litter box.

Michael Phelps Broke My TV

I woke up this morning and headed downstairs to watch some Tivoed goodness (i.e. Jamie Oliver's show). I like to fancy myself as a gardener (someday) and a good cook (sorta) - and I always feel inspired by Jamie Oliver. I've only cooked one or two things from his show - I mostly just think about how awesome his food is and then cook the same stuff as always...

Since it has been uncharacteristically cold & rainy here in Boulder, I curled up with a quilt on the couch and convinced the cat to come snuggle with me.  Once Khanyo was all situated on my lap and purring away, I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on.  The TV took its sweet time warming up and once it turned from gray nothingness to a picture a close-up, frozen-in-time picture of Michael Phelps was on the screen. Not thinking much about it, I hit the Tivo button to access my sweet Food Network show.  And nothing happened.  Michael just kept looking back at me with the whole "OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!" stunned look on his face.

I didn't want to disturb the cat to get up and trouble shoot, so I turned the TV off and thought, okay, I'll just snuggle with the cat and enjoy the sound of the rain. And that lasted about two minutes before it was boring.  

Still not wanting to disturb the snoozing cat on my lap, I grabbed the remote again and tried to turn the TV on.  Maybe the TV had thought about what it had done and felt bad and would now behave better.  But then after another round of taking its sweet time to warm up, the TV showed frozen Michael Phelps (OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!).  And then I thought, Will is going to be pissed!

I've been trying to convince Will that the Olympics are awesome for a week now.  The Chinese helped a whole lot with their awesome opening ceremony.  But Will is totally over swimming and gymnastics and the whole Michael Phelps hoopla.  And now, Michael Phelps was frozen on our broken TV because apparently the TV couldn't handle his awesomeness. 

Update:  Will was not happy with Michael Phelps for breaking our TV.  But, Will also didn't have a snoozing kitty in his lap when he found out. So he inspected the TV, forced the Tivo to shut down with some sort of boy-magic, and fixed the solution.  No more Michael Phelps (OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!) staring at us from the TV. 

If there was an Olympic game for fixing the TV, Will would have totally schooled Michael Phelps for the gold.