Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Family reunions are such awkward affairs. When we were children they were great fun. The cousins would come over to play with and grandma would have Pepperidge Farm reject cookies and plenty of Feature Films for Families to watch. As we got older, however, it got less fun. Now that most of us are in marrying age, it's just downright awkward. There's nothing much else to do but talk, which gets old after the first 45 minutes, and then you just sit there making polite sounds and waiting for it to be over. Then there is the joy that comes from introducing your future eternal companion to (dum DUM dum) the family. This particular brand of awkwardness is short lived, as the family members usually spend a great deal of time peppering the intended with questions about who they are. However, it makes things a bit more difficult for the other cousins who have yet to find their own intended, because there are the inevitable looks and pointed hints about what's taking you so long. Not to mention that family reunions are in Preston, the barnacle on the butt of Idaho.
I felt my sister's very pregnant belly the other day. The baby was squirming around so it looked like a scene from Alien. Felt absolutely disgusting. Then the baby girl got the hiccups. THAT was adorable. The entire belly shakes. My sister hates it because it hurts, but the idea of a tiny baby with hiccups is so cute...She's certainly taking her time getting here...the naughty little mooch.

Stupid Insects

My friend Caleb is serving a mission in the Philippines and his last letter mentioned they had resolved their cockroach problem. Cockroaches are so disgusting. The spawn of satan I tell you. During my high school trip to Mexico, the hallways of the hotel would be covered in cockroach carcasses in the morning. COVERED. Every morning. When I lived in Hawaii, I was in the room alone one day and noticed a cockroach the size of a small horse was sneaking around. Since it was obviously far too big to squash with a plastic flip-flop, I found the hale's can of aersol poison. I chased that cursed thing all over that room, spraying it every time it landed somewhere. This was not a silent chase of death. I squealed and yelped every time it came near me. Next door I could hear our two Samoan neighbors laughing. No doubt they were laughing at me, the pansy white girl who can't handle one little cockroach. The flying devil finally hid in some little crack where I couldn't get at it. The room was one big fog of poison, so I left for a bit so I didn't asphixiate myself. Come to find out, the cockroach was giant because it was going to be a mommy. Instead, me and my roomate had to deal with the hordes of tiny little cockroaches crawling over everything.
We never had to deal with these in Idaho. The closest we got were those spindly legged Box Elder bugs, the ones with the red-orange lines on their black wings. I hate those things. They covered the granparent's house and always threatened to sneak inside or swarm you. The houseflies DID swarm you, or so it felt. There were alway so many in the house it looked like the ceiling fan was black, instead of white. You quickly learned to sleep with your entire body under the covers and the make sure there weren't any holes the flies could crawl in. To this day I can't sleep unless my head is covered.

Aa-choo!

So Memorial Day evening I went back up to Driggs with my mom. This week went by so fast, considering all I've done is sleep in and watch old cartoons on Boomerang (the greatest channel ever). Yesterday I babysat for Natalie again. Her and Roger drove to Salt Lake to pick up their daughter from the airport and I stayed with their son. I was there until 4am but luckily Dawson was asleep by 10pm, so a great deal of time I was sleeping as well. My nose was ridiculously stuffy while I was there and by the time I went home, I knew I had a cold. So I feel like crap. Fitting, considering the weather, which is also crappy. The stupid thing about a cold is that I'm starving, but can't taste anything and nothing sits well on the stomach. Bleh. C'mon immune system! Fight!