SHUT UPPP

That one cupcake place in Lakeline Mall that used to be the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is AWESOME. Survey says: their red velvet cupcakes are better than Sprinkles' red velvet cupcakes AND they don't have those horrid wooden forks! And theirs are a little smaller than Sprinkles (Although they MAKE big cupcakes, they only had one variety of the big ones when Katie and I were there) and they're also way less expensive. But yeah, it was a total cupcake win: better cupcake, better value, and you get to eat with a plastic spoon instead of those wooden forks that send awful chills up my spine because I find the feeling of wood in my mouth (HA! Ok I'm 13.) to be absolutely intolerable.

The only fail of the experience was that I went low carb/low cal this week, so I could only have half of my delicious, delicious cupcake. Everybody better go get cupcakes from them because if that place goes under I'm 100% blaming everybody else and also going to maybe die.

So newsflash: I love the Olympics. Like, love to the point where it becomes a little crazy and obsessive and I'm not really doing much in the evenings these days because I'm watching the Olympics instead. I've always been this way, and I do it during the winter Olympics too just not as much because let's face it, I can count the number of days I've spent in a "winter" environment on my fingers. Anyway.

I am so impressed by what we're capable of. Usually I look at what we as human beings have done and kind of shake my head and sadly say "Damn..." but the past couple of days watching people who have sacrificed, driven, dreamed, and pushed their entire lives for these few days has reaffirmed my faith that we are capable of being bigger. Rising above is humanity's natural state, and I feel like we move further from that with each war, trashy reality show (oh how I love them), intolerant state of mind, hateful word, fast food chain, impatient moment, and political decision. But sitting in my parents' living room flipping out over an intensely exciting swimming race (I'm just saying...don't make four American athletes angry before you jump in the pool with them. Consider THAT a lesson learned, France.) jumping up and down with my family and our dogs(!) and knowing that across the world there are hundreds of thousands of people feeling the same way, doing the same thing, I am reminded that we are all connected all of the time. I might not know any of their names, where they come from, what they believe in, but it absolutely does not matter. The point is that they are exactly the same as me on a human level, and because we are all exactly the same, we are all individual pieces of something much bigger and more powerful than any of us know.

And we are all connected from birth until death, whether we nurture the connection or not. It's an amazingly comforting thought and it's the reason that I geek out with anticipation months before the opening ceremonies. It's why I love Christmas time - there is nothing that I share with more people on a more regular basis. I love feeling human.

I'm totally bringing back "Rad". It's super functional, brings back good memories, and is really fun to say. So spread the word, RAD is back! Oh and don't be like Dale and when I say "You're so rad!" look at me confused-ly and say back "Resident Assistant on Duty?" because no, you're not R.A.D., you were RAD but now you're a NERD and also maybe have been at your job too long. So YES, RAD ie. "TOTALLY AWESOME". Use it today and get a gold star!!

So here's a perfect storm of awesome: what do you get when you have no plans, your class is cancelled the next day, and your husband is having a guys' night with beer and guitars? GIRL'S NIGHT. I can't even say how much I've kind of needed a night like this. Nothing to study, just me and a glass of wine (I even locked the dog out of the bedroom!) and in a few minutes the DVD of my choice. I love it. Also I just got out of the shower so I'm nice and warm and clean and that's an added bonus and maybe a little too much information.

AND my A&P prof is my hero right now b/c he cancelled class tomorrow and I wasn't gonna be there anyway because Miss Amanda Engman is graduating, that's right, GRADUATING(!) from Texas State tomorrow! Way to go, Eng, I'm so proud of you!! Good show. :-)

So Katie's been after me for a few weeks now to write my Stupid and Trashy blog. The truth is, I have these classmates who I refer to as Stupid and Trashy because those are the adjectives that I felt (and sometimes still do feel) best describe these two people, but they've actually grown on me to the point where they've become hard to complain about. Especially Trashy who, it turns out, just operates by putting 100% of herself out in the open - her judgements, feelings, opinions, the works. So while it seemed trashy in the beginning to just hear hypocritical statement after hypocritical statement while she and Stupid had conversations that included the statements "I don't think women should be president - I'm a woman and I know how emotional we can be." and then called me a feminist(!) for saying that I've seen more men than women get into bar fights over stupid things and that women are perfectly capable leaders. Yes, that day was ridiculous and it was, in fact, the day that they were anointed Stupid and Trashy. But still. Even a fungus will grow on you if the conditions are right. The truth is that Stupid and Trashy have become the lesser of all the evils of Anatomy and Physiology class. For one, they're HILARIOUS and for the other...I'd take Stupid and/or Trashy of Obnoxious, "I Don't Get It", "I Have A Story", and "I Have A Better Story Than She Does", which are all other people in my class. That's where the real bitterness lies, and THAT, my friends, is where the real meat is, and it will have to wait until tomorrow. That's right, you finally got your Stupid and Trashy blog but...yeah I know it was disappointing. :-) I have to leave you wanting or you'll quit reading my blog! You...two people who read my blog. ;-) Have a nice day!

I went to Target today to pick up a few things and I was carrying my little basket, meandering through the aisles, and I passed this mom and her three children. The mom was talking to the older two who were walking beside her but the youngest was maybe 2 or 3 and riding in the shopping cart. I'm not kidding, all he was doing was sitting there going "BAA! BAA! BAA! BAA! BAA! BAA! BAA! BAA! BAA! BAA!" and the awesome part was that the mom and other kids were just totally cool about it, chatting away about other things while this kid imitated a sheep for no apparent reason. Confused, I texted a few people asking what they thought was up with this kid and why he was acting like that. I got some great responses but by far the best one was from my friend Christina, who teaches a resource class in an elementary school.

ME: So I'm at Target and I just passed by this kid who is saying "BAA" like a sheep over and over. Diagnosis?
CHRISTINA: KAR - Kid Ain't Right - that's our diagnosis when we observe a kid and are like WTF!

I totally LOL'd in the middle of the picture frame aisle at Target. That's a diagnosis win if I've EVER seen one.

"I want you to know it's all about the music. It's always been about the music."

Umm...then why, John Mayer, are you preaching instead of playing music? Rule number one of impressing me is always show me don't tell me, because the number one sign of fakeness is being all mouth. So anyway, you might know that I was at the Brett Dennan/Colbie Caillat/John Mayer concert in Dallas with Katie last weekend, and those of you who received my text messages know that I was dismayed and offended by JM's horrendous cover of "Free Fallin'". And when I say offended I mean that was, like, my fave song when I was a kid and nobody can do it like Tom Petty so...don't even try. And also he did a Stevie Ray Vaughan cover. I'm sorry, it just seems like when you've got tons of hits and literally hours of your own music that you could be performing it's a bit arrogant to sing someone ELSE'S music at your show. Sure, if you feel so compelled, play a cover - ONE cover - but not three, unless they're really awesome. Which, BTW, they weren't. So John Mayer? Officially tool-riffic.

Also Perez got a hold of some pics from his Dallas show and called him gay. Thanks to Moose (A victim of my angry texting!) for passing that info along. Love you!