Summer 2.0

Um, excuse me. Where has the summer gone? Seriously! It was almost here one second and the next, it's July 24th. Yes, one day after I turned 27.5, y'all! No kidding, I celebrated my half birthday. Roomie W was trying to tell me that I made it up and that my celebration was fake. Really?! REALLY??!! Um, 6 months is an actual amount of time. I was born 6 months and 1 day ago. That's a fact. July 23rd is an actual day on the calendar. I told him to have fun the next time he hits the 6 month mark with a girlfriend and she wants to celebrate. "Um, no thanks, babe, you're just making that up. It's not a thing." Aaaaaaaaand break up. So maybe I got on my soap box a little about it. Maybe. But hey!...just because others don't choose to celebrate their half birthdays doesn't mean they don't occur. I had at least three people wish me "Ha Bir". And yeah, it felt good to hear it. And no, they would not have done this if I hadn't made a big deal of my half birthday, but I like celebrating my increasing age (to many of my peers' astonishment) and if I want it to be a big deal, I'll make it a big deal. SOAP BOX!

Oh, but I was going to mention how I celebrated the day. Before I went off on that other tangent, that is. I had a hot dog lunch. I shall digress again. I usually bring my lunch to work. Keeps the calories down, for whatever that's worth, and keeps my money in my wallet longer. However, when I want to treat myself, I sometimes declare it Hot Dog Day. I usually can rope one or two of the Lunch Bunch (the super cool kids I eat lunch with at work) into taking Hot Dog Day with me. I/we walk across Independence Ave. and head to the second hot dog stand on the left of the plaza. The first hot dog stand could be perfectly good, but I don't patronize it. Hot Dog Lady at stand #2 is a delight. So yeah, I usually get the two hot dog special which includes small chips and a can of pop. SCORE! It's delicious. Anyway, that's what Hot Dog Day is and it occurs randomly and often without much warning and it can make a day that is otherwise rubbish. Granted, yesterday wasn't rubbish cause it was my HALF BIRTHDAY but those hot dogs sure kicked everything up a notch.

Now, my roommates had been teasing me for getting excited about my half birthday for a couple weeks. Naturally, I didn't think anyone was going to acknowledge the day unprompted. I mean, why would they? I just like to use the day as an excuse to treat myself to things and make people wish me "ha bir" but Roomie B really went above and beyond. Drum roll please...
I came home to a happy (half) birthday card AND my first Spanish-English Dictionary! Um, AWESOME! Isn't she the bees' knees? I mean really.

Alright, so now that I've spent approximately half my life discussing my half birthday, I'll move on to the rest of Summer 2.0, and this Spanish-English thing has something to do with it. For a while now I've really wanted to learn Spanish. I took French in high school and loved it. Forgot it all by now, of course. But I would like to be bilingual and I think Spanish is the way to go. Not only because the Spanish team won the World Cup and oh boy is that goalie Casillas H-O-T, and not only because I want to watch soccer and yell at the TV in Spanish, but also because I think Spanish is cool. Um, probably the first two reasons are better. Anyway, four of us lovely ladies are banding together to get group tutoring sessions through some language thingy. We're going to be ablar espagnoling in like two hot seconds.

In other news, this summer was defined for me by two important things: 1) Roomie K's imminent departure to Seattle and 2) the World Cup. I am all about that World Cup. I love me some futbol, and I grieved when July 12th came along and had no more intense competition to drool over every day. Remember that U.S.A. vs. Algeria game? I was watching that at a bar near my work. I asked my boss if I could come in early that day and then take a super early lunch so that I could watch our national team school those Algerians. Let me tell you in all seriousness, nothing can compare to the feeling of watching a game like that with a hundred other proud Americans. That place was packed, everyone in his/her work clothes, drinking business juice and screaming their heads off for our boys. When we scored that goal in stoppage time, the entire place erupted. I'm sure you've seen clips on Youtube, but it was incredible. I almost cried. I even peed in my pants a little cause I was jumping up and down and hugging my coworker and screaming so loud. That might be too much information, but I'm just letting you know how big a deal it was. I was hoarse the rest of the day because I'd spent so much of my vocal allotment on yelling at players and refs.

Four years ago I was taping almost every game and playing soccer with my brother in our living room and our yard. I wanted the Italians to win and they did, the divers. This year I had no way to tape the games so I listened to/watched almost everyone on espn3.com at my desk. Usually I'm listening to music while I enter gifts. For one whole month I was listening to Irish commentators and trying not to yelp when something good/bad happened to the team I was rooting for at the time. My world was World Cup and now what? I have half a summer left.

Just kidding. Things aren't as dreary as all that. I have lots left in the summer that are even cooler than sneakily watching/listening to World Cup games at work. Um, don't worry people. Everyone was dong it. Seriously. And no one cared. Oh, and everyone I work with knew I was doing it too. Did I mention that they, in turn, were also doing it? Just saying.

I also should expand on the first item that has defined my summer - Roomie K's imminent departure. She's moving to Seattle to be with her future hubster and we remaining roommates are charged with the task of attempting to find someone cool enough to live in her room after she leaves. I don't even have the energy to get into what that whole process has been like. UGH. But I will in the future, never fear. There are laughs to be had about that one and I want to make sure you have them. So stay tuned.

Um, in 8 days I fly to TRINIDAD!!!! That's right. Family reunioning (it's a word now, fool!) with not only the Ryan side of the family, but My Auntie K and Uncle K as well (from the Davis side). Weeeee! The rest of the summer is going to kick the first half of the summer's tushy.

I cut my hair today. It's really short.

Okay, I have things to do now, like watch more of The Mentalist and wish Simon Baker wanted to date me. You'll be hearing from me again, and soon. And if it's not soon, that's because I'm in Trinidad and I'm having too much fun to care about anything else in the world. But I'll let you know how that goes. Oh yes I will. I might even let you know about how other things went/go, too, like finding a new roommate and what I did for July 4th (like that's even relevant anymore) and what's on my Fall Bucket List and how I've done on my Summer Bucket List. We'll see!

Luhyaokaybuhbyethen.