Sunburn and what BFFs are for...

KBeff is a redhead. That if anything tells you everything you needto know about how she deals with sun. We are both lifeguards, but KBeff has been exposed to more sun so far than I have this summer. She oddly decides at one point each summer that she either doesn't nee sunscreen, or has put enough on. If you can guess, where I'm going with this is, the other day she got a second degree burn on her back. It blistered before24 hours and it's been oozing ever since. Now where I come in with this is that she came over tonight to eat dinner because she hadn't had any yet and it was close to 9:30, or 10 pm.

Michael called and we talked to him on speaker phone for a while. About half way through her visit and our talk I realized that I had some aloe vera in my bathroom that would be good on her shoulders, so we peeled up to my bathroom and found the aloe.

The hand behind it giving it ears is KBeff's. It builds character.

After I had slathered aloe on her back, it looked somewhat like this:

It looked like that before hand, but it looked not quite as shiny.

Soon she said she had to leave (after we hung up with Michael) and she asked if I'd remove some of the gunk that hadn't dried so she wouldn't mess up the nice seats in her dad's car with it. I didn't exactly want to do that, because, hey, the more aloe, the better, right? Right. So I got out my blow drier and set it on cool.

And blow dried her back. Soon she was ready to go home feeling refreshed and awesome!

My armada of "awesome BFF things" now includes aloe vera and a hair drier:

I know, I know. I'm awesome. That's what BFFs are for!

;-D

~H

Movie Theatres: A New Experience

Movie theatres are an interesting experience with Katie Beth and me.

I'm somewhat of a noisy movie watcher if I've seen the movie before, of if I'm seeing it in the comfort of my own home, and Katie Beth, well, she's not. I'm okay with crying if I feel like it (I'm the drama-queen here) and she hates crying (well, I hate crying too, but she does it way less than I do), and yet, we both cry buckets easily in the movie theatre if the movie is the right one. If one of us is crying, we'll probably end up egging the other one on.

As evidence of this:

We are or were big Lord of the Rings geeks, and we loved the movies so much that when the third one came out and we were finally old enough to drive ourselves to the movie theatre and watch it by ourselves (the first two, we hadn't been), we did just that. We drove to the movie theatre and eagerly bought the tickets, and then eagerly went and got seats almost in the very middle, because, where else are you supposed to sit, honestly.

I'd already seen the movie with my dad, and had read all three books (four if you count the Hobbit) multiple times, while Katie Beth hadn't seen the movie, but had also read the books multiple times. I knew what was going to happen, but that didn't help things. See, I'd seen the movie with Dad already and had cried through some of it, but definitely not all of it. He had laughed at me after we got out, asking me why I was crying, because I already knew how it was going to end. I'd had to remind him that I cried at the end of the third book, so I was cleared to cry at the end of the third movie. I thought I'd cry for maybe or less of the same amount that I had previously, since I'd already seen it and knew what was coming.

BOY WAS I WRONG.

To those of you who have seen it, as soon as Faramir started riding off to war never to come back, with Pippin singing that mournful song in the background the waterworks went off. That was the first place we cried. We'd sniffle and cry because it was so sad and so mournful and so pretty, and then we'd look at each other and laugh because we were crying and it was pitiful, and then we'd silently laugh so hard that we were crying again.

This went on for the remainder of the movie. Faramir goes out to die, oh, about a third of the way through the movie. We cried for the rest of it. At turns because the movie actually was sad, and at other places because we were trying not to laugh and crying because we were laughing so hard. It was a wonderful, snotty, bonding time.

The crowning moment was during the very end, in the credits, when we were still sniffling because the ending truly was sad (they all go away and leave!) and kind of giggling self-consciously, the young man who'd been sitting in the row in front of us, and watching the movie by himself, and (according to KB) didn't seem like he was quite all there, turned around and through his own sniffles asked us if we were alright.

I'm sure we startled some people leaving with our outright laughter. Sure we were alright! We were just pathetic sobs. We quickly got up to leave the theatre before he could ask any more awkward questions and then both went to carry on another tradition we have movie theatres: to use the restrooms together directly after the movies.

A Savory Life (Sort Of)

Hana and I like to do things to food. Some people call it cruel and unusual punishment, but we're not sure if they're talking about what happens to the food or what happens to our insides. It could go either way.

Normally we might not be so brave, because Hana's always been a health nut and I'm incredibly picky, but when we're together we throw caution to the wind and anything can happen.

Last Easter break we did this:



I won't lie, it could be the best thing we've ever done. Yes, I ate some afterwards.

This year, over New Years break, we had a Bacon Bakin' Day.







Personally I thought the bacon fudge and the bacon chocolate-chip cookies were a little strong on maple (Hana liked 'em), but the bacon muffins weren't terrible and I'd try the Kit Kat again.

What I'm trying to figure out is whether our food experimentation tendencies stem from one of Hana's birthday parties many moons ago. It was a little unconventional.

We were all sitting there at the table, Hana at one end, me near the other, various and sundry others between us. The cake had just been served. Hana, who didn't get cake and ice cream very often, was determined to savor every single thing on her plate. She opened her mouth and began very, very slowly lifting her fork.

I watched all this in fascination, and when the fork had just reached her still open mouth, I said, "Hana, you're supposed to savor it once it's IN your mouth."

Well that threw her off completely and the ice cream went flying, and landed in my glass. I had to get a new drink.

All in all it was pretty traumatic and we still laugh hysterically every time we relive the experience. Never a good sign. So what I'm wondering is this: did Hana's youthful spewage of ice cream into my glass of water so scar us for life that now we can't help but do weird stuff with food?

I'm conducting studies. The jury's still out.

Kids are...

Crazy!

Katie Beth and I can both attest to this. She has seven (yes 7) younger siblings, and I have four. It's a good thing I love kids, because wow, it looks like I plan on working with them some day!

Oddly enough, kids (or students, as I should really call the children I'm teaching) bring out the weirdness in me, the eccentricities that are almost embarrassing. I find myself saying things like, "Let's do this for the halibut, because we like fish!" (a saying I got from another crazy, beloved teacher) or things like, "As much as you guys like each other, it's not appropriate to hang all over one another," (to a couple of middle school boys who can't stop messing around with each other), or taking my baton (because I teach music) and balancing it on my nose, point down while I'm waiting for the students to notice that I'm trying to get them quiet so we can either start the day or continue with whatever we were doing before they got distracted.

I've also been known to completely lick my baton, suck on the handle, and then stick it in my armpit and scratch my back in front of the kids on several different occasions just to get them to quit touching it. Oh the awesome ideas I get from my cooperating teacher.

The weirdness last night was very obvious however, not with my students, but with my six-year-old little sister, LA, who decided that she would use Mom's camera (I'm living at home during my student teaching) to take pictures of me while we were waiting for my other little sister, MA, so they could watch a short movie.

Behold:

Me being normal:

Me pondering being weird:

Me trying to scare LA:

Yeah...

~H

Introductions - The Katie Beth Side

Hi! I'm Katie Beth. I like long walks on the beach and... well, I really do, actually, all cliches aside, so I'll just continue. And when I say long walks, I mean really, really long. I'm a fan of getting those calf muscles moving.

I'm also a graphic design major, which means any time I have off is so very precious. Like diamonds-in-a-field precious. I used to be a math/English major, but I decided to go for design instead, and I'm glad I did. I spend approximately 54% of my time working on projects, 41% working for pay (lifeguarding or teaching swim lessons or lifeguard classes at the Y, babysitting, pretending to teach violin, or tutoring), and the other 5% goes to Facebook, Psych, Bones, The Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls, hanging out with friends (especially Hana), and occasionally eating or sleeping. Sometimes I see my family too. There are a lot of them.

I too am in my early twenties, and as a major coincidence I have also known Hana for twenty years this summer. Funny that we would have both known each other the same amount of time... I suspect foul play.

Seriously though, Hana's pretty darn cool, and I'm thrilled that we've been able to be best friends for twenty years. That's a really long time. Hana's a pretty goofy kid. She has the best blonde moments ever. She also keeps me constantly entertained, and knows when to kick and when to hug. She also doesn't like open cabinet doors (my personal pet peeve), so we get along fabulously (unless we're kicking each other).

Have fun reading!
Katie Beth

Hello! My name is...

Hana! (Don't worry about death, you probably haven't killed anyone I know.)

I'm an eccentric individual. I play violin, viola, and any other stringed instrument I can get my hands on, am in my early 20s, and am about to graduate college. I've known Katie Beth (affectionately known as KB in type sometimes) for about 20 years now. I'll let you do the math.

I'm not only a musician, but a writer and a wannabe teacher as well, so some of my solo posts will be rants about crazy kids in the classroom or lesson setting.

Some of the things I enjoy are life guarding, spending time with family and friends, weirding people out, water, and breathing. Some of the things I dislike are intentional meanness, open cabinet doors, and laziness.

Katie Beth is weird, in a fantastic way. She can still surprise me, but she makes me laugh whenever we're together, so it's all good. Her most distinguishing feature is her bright red hair, which, as I constantly tease her, is a high attraction for the fellows.

Enjoy what you read!

~H

Hello out there!

As a forward note (because this is not a side note, or a post script), my best friend and I are starting a joint blog. This is going to be about our days together, our days apart, and well, our past. We've been best friends for 20 years this summer, and thought that this might be an awesome way to keep track of the crazy things that happen around and to us.

Stay tuned for an awesome (if somewhat haphazard) posting experience!

~H