The real reason comes out.

Colsy says:
I want to have a daughter and name her Rio.

*plays Sims instead*

Sarah Smile says:
That's what you do when you think of a great name for a kid and are dying to use it?
I just get another pet.

Colsy says I should blog about trees.

More specifically, my favorite tree.

When she asked, it was very easy to think of my favorite tree.
While I have had many love affairs with different trees in my life, (and one love affair in a tree, but that's another story) there is one tree I can still sketch (badly) from memory.

My favorite tree is an avocado tree. And no, it's not my favorite because avocados are my favorite food group. Although partly.
It was in the orchard in our yard, growing up, at what is now Bunny's house.
Avocado trees in general kick ass as climbing trees for a couple of reasons.
One, they grow really strong and unique main limbs.
Two, they're like a tent. All the small branches and leaves are out at the ends of the tree. It's like a natural treehouse.

Of all the trees in the orchard, this tree was my favorite.
A was like a natural little hammock. I could (and often did) lounge there for hours with a book and an apple.
B was low enough that I could coax my dogs to jump up and hang out with me for awhile.
Sometimes I could even get them to walk out to the end of C with me, and lie in wait for some to walk past.

That tree was my clubhouse, my pirate ship, my deserted island, my castle, my lair.
And sometimes when I'm at Bunny's, I climb it again, always expecting to run into a skinny, skinned-knee, apple-clutching, 11-year-old version of myself up there.

Happy Birthday Week*, Colsy!

Dear Colsy,

There's never been a meaningful moment in my life, big or small, that you didn't acknowledge and celebrate with me.
I can't think of a better defination of a friend, and my world is a richer place because of you.
Love you madly,

-Sarah Smile




* Her actually birthday was Sat, but she says she likes spreading the festivities out over a week.

You really never know what she'll say next.

Colsy - "Hi!"

Sarah Smile - "Hi!"

Colsy - "I'm trying to find a good local supplier of emu eggs."

Sarah Smile - "I love you."

Underneath it all, we're all the same. Perverted.

Colsy says: Do you think it would be fun or creepy to have a doll made in your image?

Sarah Smile says: FUN. Generally, if something is walking that line between fun and creepy, I find it fun. Partly because of it's creepiness.

Colsy says: I would probably do the first thing with it that I always do with a doll.

Sarah Smile says: Look to see if it has underpants?

Colsy says: Yuppers. Or that lovely skin bra.

Sarah Smile says: If it has boobies, do you run your finger between them? Like if it's a barbie? I do.

Colsy says: Same here.

Sarah Smile says: Is that strange?

Colsy says: It's curiosity!

Sarah Smile says: Thank god. I feel normal now. Well, not really. Not in general. Just about this thing.

Who wants to come with us?

Who wants to go see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie with Nick and I at the drive in?

We'll bring katanas and pizza and I'll dress up as Donatello, and you can dress up as Michelangelo or Raphael or the other one, and Nick can dress up like Man Who Thinks His Girlfriend Is Nuts! (He already has this costume.)

It'll be FUN!



Come on, Colsy, you know you want to.

Dear Colsy,

I'm so sorry. If I'd know you had to pay to receive my text messages, I would have made them sexier.

-Sarah

This is huge.

Sarah Smile says:
I've decided to forgive the color pink.
Not quite embrace it.
But forgive it and exist peacefully with it when it happens.

Colsy says:
That's very sensible of you.

If anyone should know, it's us.

Jonny says:
Pete and Sven and I will be cult celebrities before the year is up.

Colsy says:
we know
we're the cult

Sarah Smile says:
*nods*

Stuck in my head, like a song.

Jonny says it's an OCD thing, that most of the things that enter his brain get stuck there. He says his brain is sticky.

This makes me feel less crazy, although I suppose crazy is a relative term.

'Rez has blogged that she has the phrase "she farted, softly" stuck in her head.

Colsy cops to "hurly burly," and "evil jungle prince," and "cellar door."

Jonny has "a man is bread," and "bollocks to thee" stuck in his head.

I know this because I asked, because I have "the inside is larger than the outside" stuck in my head. It's from The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis, which I read recently while in the tub. Yes, in one bath I read the whole book. I told you I could live in my tub. I'm like Story.


Also, here is the cover of that book, which I loved as a child, and despite it being rather straightforward, I could stare at it endlessly.

Also, for as long as I can remember, I've had the phrase, "Do you know what she DID?" stuck in my head. Whenever I'm not thinking of anything in particular, this floats out of some corner of my brain to fill the void. Why that phrase? I have no idea.
This usually happens in the shower.
Tub, shower, there seems to be a connection.
Perhaps I need a warning label.

Sarah Smile, Crazier When Wet.

I have the vague feeling that I am "she" so perhaps my subconscious is aghast at my own behavior.
Maybe it's like dreams, just some random bit of information I took in, that my brain isn't sure where to file.

I dunno.

What phrases get stuck in your head?

I Want To Embroider It On A Pillow

From the ever-charming Colsy -

Laugh of the Insane

When things don't go your way, laugh the laugh of the insane.
When you find your own path, laugh the laugh of the insane.
When you spend more time with a kleenex box than your friends, laugh the laugh of the insane.
When something is funny, laugh the laugh of the insane but louder and more crazy-like. That way people will know when you're really happy.

Colsy Has A Question

I asked here if there was anything any of you wanted to ask, and Colsy sent me this -

"What song do you sing in your head most often? Is it something from childhood that has haunted you? Or is it a song that you always go to because it was from a time when nothing else mattered?"

I think it's a great question and I'd like to open it up to all of you.

Personally, I have a collection of old country songs perma-stuck in my head. Bits and pieces of the songs I used to sing while swinging on the swingset with Bug.

Maybe it was Memphis, maybe t'was the southern summer night, maybe it was you, maybe it was me, but it sure felt right... - Pam Tillis

That's my baby, that's my diamond in the rough, but I can make him shine with my sweet love, that's my baby ..... - Lari White

The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight, like the stars that fill the midnight sky, her memory fills my mind .... - Nathan Larson

Her book is lying on the bed, the two of hearts to mark her page, now who could ever walk away at chapter 21, so she can't be really gone.... - Tim McGraw

Did you really think last night would last forever, did you really think that guy hung the moon, right now you hate yourself cause you knew better, but theres no use crying over spilled perfume.... - Pam Tillis

Baby, what do you say we just get lost? Leave this one horse townlike two rebels without a cause? I got people in Boston, ain't your daddy still in Des Moines? We can pack up tomorrow, tonight, let's flip a coin.... - Jo Dee Messina

But that's somebody else's moon tonight, those are somebody else's stars, they're are no longer mine, 'cause somewhere tonight, you're in somebody else's arms .... - Collin Raye

Albuquerque waitin' out a blizzard, Arizona dancin' 'cross the desert, watchin' the sun set in Monterey, girl I swear just the other day you were down in Georgia pickin' them peaches, in Carolina barefoot on the beaches. No matter where you choose to be, in my heart I'll always see you, everywhere.... - Tim McGraw

Wow, that was FUN.
Anybody wanna go to a playground and have a sing-a-long on the swings?

I'm not Mormon. To my extended family, I'm not Mormon YET.

Sarah Smile says:
I just joined a facebook group of people with my last name.
Most of them go to BYU which means they're my distant cousins.

Colsy says:
heheh
i almost did that yesterday...weird

Sarah Smile says:
My dad hails from a HUGE Mormon family.

Colsy says:
wow...you also have Mormon in your genes...

Thérèse has been added to the conversation.

Sarah Smile says:
Honey, I have polygamy in my genes, and not so very far back, either.

Thérèse says:
I love coming into conversations in moments such as this one.

Sarah Smile says:
Of course the family would like to forget that, but Mormons keep such detailed and official records.
A call to the temple is all the research I'd ever have to do if I wanted my family tree.

Colsy says:
damn
you're lucky that way

Sarah Smile says:
They'd be happy to send me a wall chart with snappy colors, to remind me how much Mormon is in my blood.

Colsy says:
no kidding
but then you might get put on their mailing list

Sarah Smile says:
Oh, I'll never be off it.
I'm FAMILY.
They have great faith that eventually we'll all be sucked back in.
Ironically, I'm also on a mailing list for the Anti-Mormon Christians.
They're batshit.

Colsy says:
woah...

Sarah Smile says:
It's hilarious.

Colsy says:
too bad you can't send a forwarding address, and give them each others....

Sarah Smile says:
Their last newsletter was covered in butterflies, for no apparent reason.