Trinity University

It struck me when I was removing cookies from the oven with a guitar slung around my neck that mine is, most likely, not the conventional summer. I had put in the cookies and run off to play Rock Band with my brother and had had to pause between gigs to remove the delicious morsels. I would have started laughing at myself, but my avatar wouldn’t have permitted it. She’s a very serious rocknrolla sort, and since I would also be singing, I needed to stay in character. But when we’re not touring our band around the world via my brother’s artistically disarranged bedroom, we’re usually playing chess or swimming or at the movies (Transformers II was...slightly more believable that the first). Occasionally my brother can be moved to be my sous-chef. I’m trying to train him to make dinner and desserts for our parents since, for the first time ever this fall, my sister and I won’t be around to make anything. Tough boy that he is, he acts as if it’s all a very simple matter to be starting middle school and become the family chef. I’m predicting an overwhelming amount of beef and asparagus on the future menus - ah, boys...

Isn’t this the cutest picture? This is from God know how long ago, 1993? I was so adorable (and doesn’t my sister make the funniest faces?). That was the first and last time my sister and I went to Disney World. Since my brother has never gone, we thought it would make a grand summer vacation. We depart in less than a week! And although I would have liked to stay in a Deluxe Villa and languish about in a spa for a day or two, everyone insisted that the Value Resort was the better deal since we’d be so busy running around all the theme parks that we’d never see the room. Oh, how I despaired of that decision and then they wanted me to book the vacation. I know myself and knew that if I booked the vacation, the temptation to order two rooms in the Contemporary Resort would have been irresistible. I had to turn over the booking number to someone more trustworthy. Maybe next time. In any case, I should have some interesting pictures to post of that trip.

As if my life couldn’t get any more exciting, I’m going to a perfume shop today! Well, let me back up. Yesterday it was my parent’s wedding anniversary and in addition to exchanging gifts with each other, my father went to his favorite store (Miss Paris Perfumes - he goes there at least every two weeks) and bought everyone a perfume. I hope this becomes a tradition. But anyway, the perfume I received was not quite the one I wanted. I’m a bit obsessed with perfumes myself and I know exactly which one I will add to my collection and what scents I cannot stand. Unfortunately, my anniversary gift was something I have previously owed and fallen out of love with. But, like I said, this means I get to go shop!

While the whole perfume-gifts-for-everyone! may not interest many people, I assure you, perfume is one of my dad’s most normal ideas for a gift. His present to my mother was, well, it’s hard to say. It looks to me like a wall decoration since it is so large, but it is actually a necklace in which Jesus appears suspended within a coffin. I don’t remember Jesus ever having a coffin in any part of the bible, but I assume it’s all part of the designer’s artistic license. Or perhaps it is an homage to death. I wouldn’t want to be carrying such (literally) heavy suffering about my neck. It is better than last year’s gift though. My father must go to the same jewelry shop or same designer or something, but anyhow, last year, my poor mother got another giant necklace with Jesus on it. That time Jesus was clinging onto the necklace chain with one hand, poised as if he were hanging on for dear life. So yes, we all much prefer the perfumes.

My father seemed as pleased with his gift as we were oddly intrigued with his. In the mall we managed to find a 4ft. Virgin Mary for him to put in the garden. The dogs are afraid of it and he takes this as a good sign. Surely, with Mary there this means the peaches can grow without being pitted by birds first?

Seeing as my mind has defuzzed itself (or maybe not since it appears that I have just typed a nonexistent word) from the rigors of schoolwork, I hope to post more regularly and continue the family saga. I promise that, if necessary, I will incorporate plots from soap operas (although since Passions was cancelled and Chloe divorced Brady in Days of Our Lives, I have lost the will to commit to daytime tv) to keep things interesting.

Oh by the way, is anyone reading Mountains Beyond Mountains?