happy Easter!

my brother and I. Easter. Some year a long time ago.

To me, Easter is a pretty new dress, a soulful Sunday service, and family around the table, catching up on new happenings and laughing about old memories. 

Although this won't be the first Easter I've ever worked, this is the first Easter that I won't be seeing my family. 

Not too thrilled about that one. 

After Jesus, family is my favorite part of Easter. Some of my favorite childhood memories come from Easter Sunday at my Auntie Margaret and Uncle Ed's house in the foothills. I always had a pretty new dress, the women always cooked roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, and there were always always a few bowls teeming with olives on the table. I would fiddle with Uncle Ed's clock safe and then Auntie Margaret's huge seashell while the adults hid the eggs. And the eggs. The eggs! Hard boiled and hand dyed. I wish all eggs popped out of chickens so colorfully. After I found all the eggs Grandma would hand me my Cool Whip tub full of Tootsie Rolls, Skittles and Jellybeans. And then the men would take all the kids for a long walk while the women gossiped and cleaned up after lunch. The walk was my favorite. It always will be. 

I think I'll be going for a walk today. And although I'll be by myself, I know I can think back on all those walks from Easters past and realize that, even though I'm not with them today, they will always be with me. 

here lies the story of the rooftop narc

I love the roof of our apartment. Its where I go to unwind and be by myself. Its where I go when I need to cry. Its where I go to enjoy root beer floats with my roommates on those rare sunny days in the Sunset. Its where I go for good views. Its where I had my first kiss. 

A few Mondays ago, after a long, frustrating day at school, nothing sounded better than a bottle of cold pear cider on top of the roof. I got home, rallied the roomies, grabbed some cider for me and some beer for them at the liquor store, and we took our guitars up.

After about an hour of jamming, singing, drinking, and giggling, I came up with the bright idea of walking across our next door neighbors roof for a photo op and one of my roommates followed to see if the view was any different from ours. Although I stepped lightly, the next door neighbor on the third floor, apparently, was not fond of this idea. 

He popped up out of some skylight like a gopher on a mission and demanded that we leave the roof, OUR roof, immediately. To which we politely and genuinely responded with "we're so sorry! Were we bothering you?" This man, this rooftop narc, goes on and on about how he's heard us walking on his roof before and had called our landlord to complain, about how we should only be on the roof if there was an emergency, like a fire. 

A FIRE?! Let me tell you, the roof is the last place I would want to be if there was a fire. 

He then proceeds to demand we get off immediately and says he is going to watch us until we are all off. 

So I took my time. 

Because who deemed him hall monitor?

Let me wrap up:

Landlord comes over an hour later, tells us the narc called, and that the next time he catches us up there he has permission to phone the police. THE POLICE? For being on our own roof? 

Yep. 

Some people are just charming little fun-suckers that like to suck all of the fun out of life. They are most often found preying on those who are too busy enjoying life to be doing things like ruining other people's afternoons. 

music for your... past month

With school all day four days a week and then work taking over the other three, life has been a little hectic and I haven't had much of a chance to do anything other than homework, if even that. I hope to soon post some photos and some odd little recent ramblings, like the man behind me at the bus stop saying "psst! Young lady! You are cuter than a pair of handmade shoes. You tell that special someone back home I said that." Just know that when the posts finally start a-flowin' it means I'm avoiding my homework. Actually, that's exactly what I'm doing right now...

Man oh man, wouldn't I love to be walking through the courtyard of the Louvre with a tambourine right now instead of washing the dirty dishes that have piled up in the sink.