“ISN’T IT WEIRD?”…..ummmm….not really....

You may have read that there were earthquakes in Italy Monday. I was talking to a girl about my trips that day. We work together and she sees my desk covered in all kinds of crazy pictures. She told me that she went home Monday night, only to read about the earthquakes in Italy. She told her fiancé… Isn’t it weird that I was just talking to a girl at work about being in Italy and today this happens? ….Ummmm…. not really… those two things are COMPLETELY UNRELATED…..
For those of you who didn’t hear….
Many dead in Italy earthquake
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/strong-earthquake-hits-central-italy-2621898
A powerful earthquake struck a huge swathe of central Italy as residents slept on Monday, killing at least 50 people when houses, churches and other buildings collapsed.

The dead were mainly in L'Aquila, a 13th century mountain city about 100 km east of Rome that has a population of 68,000, and surrounding villages. The Civil Protection Department said the quake most likely killed "tens of people". Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled a trip to Moscow and said he had declared a national emergency, which would free up funds for aid and rebuilding.

"I woke up hearing what sounded like a bomb," said Angela Palumbo, 87, as she walked on a street of L'Aquila. "We managed to escape with things falling all around us. Everything was shaking, furniture falling. I don't remember ever seeing anything like this in my life," she said. Rubble was strewn throughout the city and nearby towns, blocking roads and hampering rescue teams and residents who tried to lift debris with their bare hands in a search for survivors from the quake, which had a magnitude of at least 5.8.

"Thousands of people (could be left) homeless and thousands of buildings collapsed or damaged," said Agostino Miozzo, an official at the Civil Protection Department.

A resident in l'Aquila standing by an apartment block that had been reduced to the height of an adult said: "This building was four storeys high." Some cars were buried by the rubble.

In another section of the city, residents tried to hush the wailing of grief to try to pinpoint the sound of a crying baby. It was the worst earthquake in terms of deaths to hit Italy since 2002, when 30 children were killed in a school collapse in the south.

But officials said the death toll from this earthquake could be worse because more buildings were damaged over a wider area.

Four children killed in one building

Four children were reported killed in one building in l'Aquila, two people were dead in one outlying village and five in another. A number of people were reported to have been injured and still trapped under rubble, officials said.

There were numerous reports of some the area's centuries-old Romanesque and Renaissance churches collapsing.

Part of a university residence and a hotel collapsed in l'Aquila but it was not clear if anyone was inside. The quake brought down the bell tower of a church in the city centre.

Some bridges and highways in the mountainous area were closed as a precaution.

The quake struck shortly after 1.30pm (NZT) and was centred in the mountainous Abruzzo region east of Rome.

People in many parts of central Italy felt the quake and some ran out into the streets. Residents of Rome, which is rarely hit by seismic activity, were woken by the quake. Furniture rattled, lights swayed and car alarms went off.

The US Geological Survey said the quake's epicentre was believed to be about 95 km from Rome and that its depth was 10 km.

The agency initially put the scale of the quake at 6.7 but later lowered it to 6.3. Italian officials put the magnitude at about 5.8.

The quake was the latest and strongest in a series to hit the l'Aquila area on Sunday and Monday. Earthquakes can be particularly dangerous in parts of Italy because so many buildings are centuries-old.

TEXTS

So a while back I started randomly texting my little brother, Evan. He had no idea what he was in for. He is in a band and writes the lyrics for their songs. So I told him that I would send him some of MY saaawweeeeet lyrics… haha* Enjoy

Aight. Tight. Wanna get in a fight? Watch out, I bite! But its all right. Yeah, I’m white. Aint that a sight? Think I’m done? Not quite. I could go all night. Aight.

You know you are impressed. I am too. You were at school. I wish I were you. Don’t Czech your phone. Or you will get in trouble. Mom will get mad and burst your bubble. AIGHT.

I’m at Subway. 5 dollar sub. I am hungry. Gonna get me some grub. Food in my tummy. It better be yummy. AIGHT

Just got to my job. Wanting to eat corn on the cob. Mondays are tough. On my desk there’s so much stuff. Missing my fam. More work WHAM. AIGHT.

Chillin on my work computer. Rockin out to my favorite tune. One hour to go. It is so soon. I love you. You love me too. AIGHT

The rhymes are getting lame. But I love this game. Can’t wait to see you in four days I hope there will be sunrays. I’m so street. Because I can rock out this beat. AIGHT

Work makes me money. But its so sunny. Skating would be better. In this kind of weather. Try to land an ollie. Oh gollie.

Bout to eat some food. That chick looks like a dude. That was rude. But it’s all good. AIGHT
Bout to watch the game. It wont be lame. You and Nathan look the same. AIGHT

Which one is your favorite?

Curse

How is it possible to make a ‘quick stop’ at either Target or Wal-Mart and spend NO LESS than $50? It gets Mark and I EVERY TIME.

The other day, we stopped at Target on the way home, to get dishwashing detergent.... walked out with dishwashing detergent, a scrapbook, Easter candy, a birthday card, and two puzzles….

$49.17

yeah... that one kind of stands out doesn't it….It made one of my friends think of his Great Grandma…..

We were walking to the cash register, past the toy aisles...I asked mark (since it was raining) if he wanted to purchase a board game or a puzzle.

I ask random questions often and expected a whole hearted chuckle- one from the gut, you know? …and what I got was... "A puzzle would be fun"

I’m not sure if it was a jigsaw….

So then we spent 10 minutes and $20 buying not one but TWO .... (We couldn't decide)
I don't really think Mark responded with "a puzzle would be fun"...it was more like "I haven't done a puzzle since I was four and a half.."

Anyways….

The first one we got was of the New York Skyline at night.... 3 feet wide....750 pieces... Has the twin towers in it.. So I needed it...

The second one was of the Las Vegas Strip at night. 3 feet wide, 750 pieces.... glows in the dark so Mark needed it...

We are rocking out the Las Vegas one now.. We are going to frame it when we are done and put pictures of all our crazy Vegas adventures around it... I've been there once, and Mark has been there like five times...at least

Mark called me on his way to work the other day... and to update me on the puzzle... he said he rocked out about 15 pieces just over breakfast... he's a PUZZLE MASTER

I had buyer’s remorse as soon as we made the purchases... It's kind of like what I think post-partum depression is going to feel like…

I told the cashier I had buyer’s remorse and she wasn't having it...she ignored me, like she hears that all the time… I guess sporadic puzzle purchases aren’t just a thing for the Bakers after all…

A MAN INVENTED PANTYHOSE

The man’s name was Allen Gant Senior. Jen and I were having this conversation a few years ago. It stemmed from her shopping for some and I was reminded of the tale when I was making the purchase at Target the other day…

Have you ever noticed the way the sizes on those things go???? Yikes.

Now, I’m not above buying clothes just for the size. I am currently wearing a skirt that I bought PURELY because the tag said it was a zero. From Armani Exchange. Yeah, I’m proud of it. I’m not even sorry for posting it. I feel pretty lame that sometimes I let the tag hang out … not so people can see the name brand… just so that they can see that big fat ZERO! Waooohooo!

That’s pretty bad, right? Wrong. It’s what women do. I know a girl who isn’t opposed to buying clothes that fit her. She has a "freakishly long torso" and has to buy shirts that are [sometimes] large or even (*gasp*) extra large. But this doesn’t stop her from buying them. She blames her torso. She has a ritual, though, that as soon as she gets home she cuts of the tag. Not the one with the price…the one with the size. GENIUS!

Back to the stupid pantyhose. I’m 5’8" (according to my volleyball roster) and (*cough*) 140 pounds. ß If I’m naked and haven’t eaten for the last 48 hours. Anyways, this is important information. I have a normal BMI and am in no way my name in Latin class in high school, Obesa. Translated: Fat girl.

Here is how pantyhose shopping goes for me:
Oh, I have a size zero Armani Exchange skirt….. I bet I’m an A!
Nope… 4’ 11" to 5’ 4"….moving on….
Probably a B….The only way I could be a B and be 140 pounds is if I was 5’ 3"… crap…
Now where is the C??? Or the BB? Or the AA? Hmmmm… What the heck do I do?
I’m not a B, and am certainly not an A…..
WHAT THE?!?!!??
NO WAY!
OMG!
I CAN’T!
I COULDN’T!
NOOOOOOOOOOO!

That’s right, ladies. After A, come B. After B…. You guessed it Q!~

FREAKING Q?!?! WHAT THE HECK KIND OF SYSTEM IS THAT?? WAY TO GO, MR. GANT! YOU ARE THE A-HOLE OF THE CENTURY.
I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!

Needless to say, like any normal woman, I bought the B.

You know when you are 17 and have to buy tampons for the first time? It’s uber embarrassing and you buy a pack of Chewy Chips Ahoy to put on top of the tampon box on the conveyor belt so that you can hide the box of tampons? (And so you can devour the whole box in one sitting later that night?) Or was that just something I did?

Anyways, buying a pair of size Q pantyhose would have been a similar experience. One I avoided by proudly purchasing the B’s.

Yes, my Latin teacher called me Fat Girl for a semester of my life. But it’s Allen Gant Senior I’m upset with. And these size B pantyhose are preventing blood from flowing to the lower portion of my body. Should have gotten the Q’s and cut the tag off…..

SEVEN YEARS

I do swear that I'll always be there. I'd give anything and everything and I will always care. Through weakness and strength, happiness and sorrow, for better, for worse, I will love you with every beat of my heart… -Shania Twain "From this Moment"

Wow. I cannot believe that (as of today) Mark and I have been together for seven years.

I am absolutely not having the dilemma that some couples have had once they get married: Do we start over? Does our time together pre-marriage count when people ask how long we have been together? These have never been hard questions to me. The answer is hail to the yes it counts! I know people who DATED six weeks prior to THE WEDDING DATE. I’m not in any way on their level. They probably start over the ‘counting’ because it doesn’t matter. IT’S PRETTY MUCH THE SAME NUMBER. As for Mark and I, we dated for six years before our big day.

Don’t get me wrong. There were no wedding plans pre-college graduation. Neither of us were into it. We both loved each other and could see ourselves spending the rest of our lives together, we just didn’t want to really MAKE the HUGE DECISION to get married until after college.

But that doesn’t mean we start our counting from August 2. O0o0o0o0 no…. It’s been since April 9, 2002. You better believe we get credit for the last seven crazy years.

I love you, Mark! Thanks so much for being my best friend and committing your life to such a crazy gal like me! Now let’s go out to the club and celebrate!!!! lol

VIP TREATMENT

OUT TO EAT BEFORE THE PACERS GAME
SITTING VIP... WE ARE AMAZING

I'M AWARE THESE LOOK LIKE THE SAME THREE PICTURES, BUT I LOVE THEM ALL

I LOVE MY BABY BROTHER!

BOYS WITH THEIR CHURCH CAMP GIRLS!

NO MATTER WHAT, THESE THREE ARE NATHAN AND EVAN'S FAVORITE! :)

I LIKE THEM

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Should I eat the cake?

Do any of you watch The Office? Well, I’m pretty sure that I work there… if you don’t know, The Office is on NBC every Thursday at 9:00. It is ABSOLUTELY hilarious, especially if you have worked in an office!

One of the many reasons I believe that I, in fact, work in The Office has to do with the EXCESSIVE amount of parties that are thrown here on a weekly basis. LITERALLY there is one AT LEAST once a week. It is absurd. And downright obnoxious what is doing to my co-workers’ hips.

You might wonder why my hips have gone unaffected. I refuse to partake in the cake eating ceremonies. For those of you in attendance to the Baker wedding, you will remember the cake…
or lack thereof… there wasn’t one. I hate cake… So does the husband. AND (on an unrelated note, imagine that) it is ONE OF THE MOST traditional things you can do at a wedding reception, which was ABSOLUTELY UNCALLED FOR on August 2…. Anyway, I don’t eat the cake.

It all started one Tuesday morning in March. It was one of the lady’s birthdays. (Apparently.)

Our boss FRANTICALLY walked down the aisle of our cubes, TELLING everyone to get up and go to the table. I thought we were having a meeting. Turns out, we were just singing (terribly) happy birthday to this chick.

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s cool to celebrate birthdays. But where does it end? Death? Why must I sing happy flippin birthday every time one of my 4200 co workers celebrates theirs? And why must I eat cake afterward?

I think my hatred for these types of ludicrous celebratory gatherings stems from the fact that I am a Summer Birthday Baby. I would get sooooo pissed off when my whole third grade class had to stand around and sing happy birthday to Andy, who just turned 9. I wanted to say, "I don’t give a crap, Andy! No one cares that it is your stupid birthday!" But instead, I would congratulate him on being born and eat one of the nasty cupcakes that his Mom made the night before. They even had his favorite color (blue) as the icing. Cute, right?

Not for the Summertime babies. No one celebrated our birthdays. There was that one time in fourth grade. The teacher designated a day for all the SummerTime Birthday Babies to have a party. I was stoked. I was ready to rage. I came to school with my bangs teased and my hair combed. (That was an accomplishment)… Turns out the party was L.A.M.E. Why did Andy get his own stupid birthday song sung to him by 27 of his classmates and I had a joint party with the 12 other SummerTime Babies?

The injustice of the situation haunts me to this day.

The other day at work one of the lady’s got a promotion. She made cake FOR HERSELF and brought it in for everyone to eat. She went around and made sure everyone got a piece. She got to me.

"There’s cake over there." She said.
"Oh, great, thanks!"
"Oh, are you just going to eat your yogurt?"
"Yeah, I wasn’t planning on eating cake for breakfast."
[It was 8:30 in the morning]
"Well, you better hurry! If you don’t, it’s all going to be gone…" [Checking the cake] "There’s only three pieces left!" She said.
[What I thought…] "Really? What the? Are you serio…Who the heck eats cake for breakfast? Four year olds when their mom isn’t looking? Old people?"
[What I said] "Whatever! Happy Birthday!"

I think people are starting to judge me for not eating the cake. I AM THE OUTSIDER because I don’t have cake on my breakfast menu. I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out. It’s either eat and let it go straight to my hips…. Or get the eternal stink eye…..

MOM'S EMPTY CHAIR

I got this in an email the other day and really liked it…….thought I’d share……

A woman's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her mother. When the minister arrived, he found the woman lying in bed with her head propped up on two pillows.

An empty chair sat beside her bed. The minister assumed that the woman had been informed of his visit. 'I guess you were expecting me, he said.

'No, who are you?' said the mother. The minister told her his name and then remarked,
'I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up..'

'Oh yeah, the chair,' said the bedridden woman. 'Would you mind closing the door?' Puzzled, the minister shut the door. 'I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,' said the woman.
'But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head.' I abandoned any attempt at prayer,' the old woman continued, ' until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me, ' Prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest. 'Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair.

It's not spooky because he promised, 'I will be with you always'. 'Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now.' 'So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.'

The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old woman to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with her, anointed her with oil, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her mama had died that afternoon. Did she die in peace?' he asked.

Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, she called me over to her bedside, told me she loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found her .

But there was something strange about her death. Apparently, just before Mom died, she leaned over and rested her head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?'

The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, 'I wish we could all go like that.'

NO HABLA

There is this guy who sits next to me at work. He is super shy and is from Mexico. He barely speaks English and WHEN he does speak, it is very soft and slurred. I can never understand him, so I just smile, nod, or laugh appropriately. I stopped laughing when he asked me what was so funny one time… Apparently he was asking about an out of balance account… I thought he was telling a joke…..who knew….

So each month, I have to send a ‘This is what I did this month" report to my bosses. I also have to put my goals and how I am planning to reach them. Stuff like that. Anyways, on my report this month I mentioned that I wanted to learn Spanish. I think it would really help me to help others make the transition into America. I have been the awkward outsider before and HATED IT so I would like to help in any way that I can. I’ve been listening to this CD on the way home from work. Learn Spanish in 15 minutes a day! Riiiiiiight. Pretty much all I have learned is Hola. (It’s tough to learn Spanish in rush hour…) You know, that whole FOCUS ON THE ROAD thing…

Do you know where this is going?

My boss (who is from Texas and speaks Spanish) read the report and thought it was so great that I wanted to learn. She offered to bring me in a textbook the very next day to help ‘further my education.’

THEN (and here is the doozy of the story) she walks right on over to Francisco and in SPANGLISH (Spanish/English) tells him never to talk to me in English again. If I want to really learn Spanish, I have to just get THROWN IN.

WOW… I thought it was some sort of crazy joke and didn’t want to tell my boss that, if she was serious, she really needed to tell him to stick to the basics… you know… Hola! Como Estas…. Margarita…

About two hours after the conversation, Francisco gets up from his desk, comes over to me, and starts a full blown conversation. My response? A ten second "deer in the headlights" stare. I had no reaction! I said, "Do what?"

Francisco looked confused. I told him I’m a beginner and have no idea what he just said. Maybe we could stick to conversations where I translate his ENGLISH before we go bi-lingual.

So today before Fransico left, he stopped by my desk and said: "Hasta Menyen!"
"Whatever!" I responded in my best Spanish accent!

Other Random Bowling Pictures

Good NIGHT he is gorgeous!

The boys... Tim, Markie, and his bro Andy

Why so serious?

That's better.... man dancing

Man love....captured

Soco and lime

High Fives for Gunnar!

Wow

They hate having their picture taken, don't they?

The boys

Glow Bowl

Singing Crush

They sounded JUST like Dave Matthews....

He's cute....and married....to.....me! :)

Gunnar

He was such a great bowler! He scored 110 one game! Woot!

Showing off his new tat....he got it at dinner that night..... :-)

Gunnar and his Daddy!

Gunnar is Tim's younger brother. He is absolutely adorable! Six years old and already a heartbreaker! Gunnar's mom died suddenly last summer. He is such a happy little boy, even though he has already been through so much! I had a great time hanging out with Gunnar Saturday night, while Mark hung out with people his age! :-)

Tutti Fruitti

Bob did some karaoke himself.... He sang Tutti Fruitti for the crowd. He had come from a wedding before he got to the bowling alley.... So he probably doesn't remember this either..... But I am so0o0o0o glad I got to witness it....

The best part was that Bob still had his pants rolled up from when he was bowling. He didn't care one bit.... :-)

MELANIE

So I have an out of state fan. And I don’t even know her. But I like her. This is why: I met Emily when we were in college. Our love of accounting and hatred for Dr. C. brought us together. She was one of the most clownin people I’ve ever met. She also would say just about whatever was on her mind. I’m in love with people who don’t have a filter. And Emily did not. Emily fo sho is the friend who would say, "Gross, you have a huge booger." Not the one who would give you subtle hints like scratching their nose or something. I shared some of my April Fools Day blog posts with Emily, who shared them with Melanie. Who wanted more. Well, Melanie! That certainly is a lot of pressure, but I will try my best! Welcome!

PS- I truly feel like I’ve made it… and a total douchebag for even posting this….