Like the corners of my mind

Over Christmas my long time friend Jed called to tell me he had spent the afternoon looking through college photos. "And let me just tell you," I waited for him to say something sweet about how much he missed all of us or how young and adorable we all were, "the 90's were NOT kind to ANY of us. We looked AW-FUL!"

I would have argued but I spent an entire year in denim overalls and a flannel shirt tied around my waist. So here's to your 30's when you can afford better skincare and good haircuts. And when don't spend a good chunk of your time eating mozarella sticks at Denny's at 2 in the morning.

Hooray for adulthood.

Shadowlands

I think it's safe to say that the last three months have been amongst the most insane of my life. The Olympics feel like some crazy dream that happened forever ago and the trip to Mexico that seemed like it would never come has now had the audacity to be over. And my best friend Lisa got hitched and almost everyone I know from college showed up to celebrate.

Mexico was pretty perfect. Despite our assertions that all we were going to do was lay around, Corey and I kept fairly busy. We went to famous ruins and we swam in a cenote, we snorkeled, we played in the waves, we got massages. We drank more Diet Coke then the Jersey Shore cast off Spring Breakers drank tequila and we squeezed limes into a whole bunch of tacos. It was just the vacation I needed after Vancouver, and frankly, after the last two exhausting years.

(Thanks Jane for the ShakeIt Photo App. Feels so perfect for Mexican vacation photos!)

And then!

I went to Utah and these guys picked me up


I know, I know-you have cute kids/nephews/children you babysit but these two are mine and every single time I am around them it knocks the wind out of me how much I love them. They give me looks where I see their daddies faces and I can't believe I get to be related to all of these people.

My mom dropped me off where some of my SUU friends where staying and I pretty much didn't stop laughing until I got on the plane Sunday evening. I feel so lucky to have gone to school with such a fantastic group of people and that we've all stayed in touch so well. It's so nice to be around folks who knew you before you had any real idea who you were and yet they still manage to love you. Someone is bound to bring up some fabulous event you had completely forgotten and even though I am an adult woman with a grownup job, the boys will tease me mercilessly about something dumb I said ten years ago that somehow stays endlessly alive in their memories. These people feel like home in a way that is so easy and effortless that I honestly felt years and years melt away and it seemed like we were those dumb kids experimenting with the real world.

The best part of course was getting to see Lisa so happy. It was the first time I had met her husband(!) and so we all had to remind him over and over how lucky he was to get her. All I cared about was that he didn't seem to need us to get that. Lisa was a good 50% of the reason I didn't flee college my second semester in what would have been a scaredy-cat mistake of seriously epic proportions (someday I will run you through how my crush on a boy who ran for Student Body President at SUU is pretty much responsible for every good thing that happened from then on). She and I had a public speaking class together freshman year, she gave a talk on love and passed out the lyrics to Howard Jones' Everlasting Love. I think I talked about unicorns. We became dear dear friends and I haven't missed a day making my bed since the semester we started living together. We've been through a lot over the years. She lost her mom just before we graduated, my parents got divorced, her dad had a difficult second marriage, we've both had too many disappointing boy experiences to even start listing (only one of whom was the same boy), we've watched younger siblings and the vast majority of our friends get hitched and have kiddies. "katieandlisa" was one word for a long time and I think everyone knew that if you told either one of us a secret, we would tell the other one but no one else. (except when Brandon SPECIFICALLY told me not to tell Lisa he had bought a ring for his GF. And so I didn't. And then he was ALMOST bugged at me because he didn't tell her assuming I would.) Through all of it, Lisa has been one of the most thoughtful, grounded, kind, generous people I know. She keeps in touch with EVERYONE. She is actually the human Facebook and knew all kind of things about people long before we all started splattering it on the internet. She's the one who will catch in the obituaries that our friend lost a brother and there will be a note on it's way before anyone else knows. She was the one who was there for her little siblings when their mom died and she's the one who got her brother ready for his mission. The night she told me she was engaged her first concern was how I was going to feel since we're the tail end of singles in our group. Which was silly, because what kind of friend can begrudge someone she cares about finding the love of her life?

The reception was packed full of faces I hadn't seen in years and then we stayed out way too late at some funny little bar downtown where there was more laughing and teasing and laughing. I got a good nephew and family dose the next morning and then headed home to the apartment I fall more in love with every single day. All the post-event blues have worn off and the trip totally recharged me. Even a completely full email box Monday morning didn't dampen my good mood.

Here is one of my favorite photos from the weekend. Lisa looked amazing and I think the rest of us are holding up pretty well for being so close to middle age ; )

Arrived

Amazing amazing 10 days. I have plenty to say and some photos to post but this is how the whole experience felt, courtesy of my dear friend Jed.

Christmas Eve

I'm going to Cancun in the morning. I actually finished packing before midnight tonight which is pretty much unheard of in these parts. I spend so much time traveling for work that I forget how FUN it is to pack for FUN. And thanks to the event diet I've been on for the last few months, it was actually pretty pleasant to pull out all my summer clothes. So pleasant I know I overpacked and I will wear a swimsuit or yoga pants the entire time.

I'm super excited for the trip, Corey and I haven't made a single plan-we are just going to go and sleep when we want, sit by the pool when we want, go to the beach when we want and probably eat so many fish tacos and drink so much Coke Light that we'll have to buy new yoga pants. No blinky blackberry light, no early mornings, no scraping my car off three times in the last 12 hours.

Then it's off to Salt Lake for my dearest Lisa's wedding and SUU reunion extraordinaire! So many of my very favorite people all in one place, I'm kind of delerious. And it all ends with a nephew blitz on Sunday because little Oakland nephew is visiting his Salt Lake cousin this week so I get both little weasels for the price of ONE plane ticket.

I probably won't be around the internet much next week, just popping in now and then to check my brackets!!! (22 of 32 in Round One. Not too shabby!) Here is the tune that got me motivated to pack early.

Deleted

I was looking for an old email tonight and happened upon a chain of messages from 2004 debating who is the greatest superhero of all time. I would like to note that both the instigator of the conversation and one of the loudest voices were at the time attending Harvard Law and getting an PhD at MIT respectively. It was a lively discourse. I read my entry into the discussion and thought it was too funny not to post. This was pre-Christian Bale Batman movies but I think that makes my case even stronger. I guess this is what I did before I blogged ; )

I would like to make a case for Batman vs.Superman by bringing us all
back to high school.

Superman is the easy crush. He is the captain of the football team, he
is the Student Body President. He looks good in a tux, he will take
you to the Prom in a limousine (and probably drink too much and try to
get you to stay in a hotel room but that is neither here nor there).
He is six pack abs and straight white teeth. All the girls have a
thing for Superman. He is a good guy, your mom will love him, your
friends will be jealous of you, your life will be predictably
protected. He'll have a good job, the kids will go to summer camp and
get braces and scholarships to the U. Superman is not hard to figure
out. Sure his beginnings were a little sketchy but then he was raised
in a loving home by good people. Superman is cool, and it's easy for
him.

Batman however. You aren't sure what to make of him. He's probably in
your art class. Or he has a band. Or he hangs out in the South Hall
and doesn't make it to class very often. But he's smart. And he's
creative. And he'll draw a picture of you that doesn't just look like
you, it figures you out. And your friends will say "Gross! you can't
like him!!!". And your parents will probably ban him from your house.
But he'll figure out how to get to you. He'll give you your first
copy of Franny and Zooey. He is dark, intense, brooding. He witnessed
his parent's murder for crying out loud. So you are taking a chance
with this guy. He's an underdog to say the least. But you think that
somehow, you will be able to figure him out, solve his puzzle, heal
him. And that is very, very attractive.

I guess I'll let you decide who I'm leaning towards here but I think
I'd rather be Kim Basinger than Margot Kidder.

Boost

Apparently it's brag about who I know week. My good friend Dave, who is responsible for finally getting me into The Smith's at the tender age of 28, is one of those actors out there in Hollywood. It's pretty fun when you are catching up on shows on Hulu and you see his mug spooning with a lawyer. See below if you are confused.

Boost Mobile Commercial Link

Small World

I didn't watch the Oscars this year because frankly, I get to eye rolly by the end of that show with how self-important the movie industry is. Hey guys, film is great, I'll even give you that film is important. But you are all very very well compensated to do a really fun job so...you know, perspective. Not curing cancer or anything.

But. I was pretty excited for Kathryn Bigelow to get that Best Director award. Kind of funny that it's 2010 and it's the first time a woman has ever won it eh?

Anyway, my mom sent this yearbook photos over today-guess who she sat by in English class? Click on the photos below and see if you can find a face that looks kinda like mine on the first page and a famous name on the second page.

Pretty cool.

Birthday

Replikate turned four on Saturday.

I have posted 832 times here. I'm not sure I've been this consistent at anything in my life. Being bossy maybe?

I was actually a really good journal writer prior to writing the blog. I have journals that stretch back to the very first one I got for my eighth birthday. For the most part they are a record of every boy who didn't like me back but there are some flashes of good in them. I feel lucky to have written that much of life down, even if it's often too focused on that one area. I have journals from my mission and journals I wrote while my parents were getting divorced. Journals that run from hating college to really loving it and journals about all my treks across the country.

I stopped writing when I realized that the blog was probably a more real version of me. Isn't that funny? I opened it up to the public and I think I'm more honest here then I was when it was for my eyes only. I don't write about specific boy situations here but looking back, I know who the subtle reference I do make belong to and it helps me remember mistakes I don't need to make again. i know I enjoy the process of writing a post more then I enjoyed just free writing in my journal. I think a lot more about what I want to write here and I feel a certain amount of pressure for it to be reasonably entertaining.

I wasn't sure what I wanted this to be when I started. My friends Betsy and Rebecca had just started a now defunct blog called The New Awesome that detailed their terribly chic lives in San Francisco. At first I hoped Replikate would be as spicy but as I progressed I realized what I wanted to do was just write. I.love.to.write. It's one thing in my life that I never doubt. I know I'm pretty darn good at it, and even if I'm not, enough people humor me that I'm going to keep doing it.

So thanks Replikate readers, I would write this thing if no one ever looked at it and I think it would still be valuable, but over the years that are lots of you I've come to know a little bit and whose opinions I love to hear. I appreciate that you spend a few minutes with me here-our lives are all so busy and it means a lot that anyone bothers to stop by at all. Replikate has been one delightfully consistent thing where I know Mike from Texas is still reading whether I'm in Boston or HB or COS.

Life is returning to some kind of normal here now that the Paralympic Processing is over. I spent a lovely night last night organizing my closet and moving my Oly wardrobe to the back. It's been an exciting few months but I'm ready to get back to a regular workout schedule and try to make a life in this new little city I live in. And subjecting you all to it too ; )

Cooked

It's been an unreal six weeks. We sent the last of the Paralympians off to Vancouver today. Amazing, amazing people.

The Sled Hockey boys made me take this picture I promise.

Right Now

HOLD UP WAIT A MINUTE!!!

Stop everything!!

A very looooooooooong awaited Broken Social Scene record comes out May 4th and I will actually be visiting a CD shop to get my hot little copy.

But today! My smart and cool friend Chanelle gave a Facebook heads up that one of the tracks from the album is out and you can hear it here.

I have a near crazy love for Broken Social Scene. If you want to know what the world feels like to me, listen to five or six BSS songs and you'll get it. As the reviewer says, they are "...expansive, uplifting, dramatic, melodic".

I discovered these guys as my first time in Huntington Beach was winding down and they will just always remind me of warm sand and funny boys and stolen kisses and the feeling that something big is just about to happen with no clue what it might be.

Show Me State

For some reason when I'm naming artists I love, I always forget Griffin House. I can't think of a song of his that I don't just love. And honestly, he has one called "The Guy That Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind", and it starts with the lyric, "you don't have to change a thing about you babe, I'm telling you from where I sit you're one of a kind" sooo...what's not to love?

Anyway, my iTunes is doing a good job recently of sensing what I want to hear. Last night I got "Fever Dream" by Iron and Wine, a song that makes my heart skip as much now as it did when it leapt out at me live at a little club in Rhode Island many years ago. Today I got a stellar Griffin House track I hadn't heard in awhile called "Show Me Yourself". It has hands down one of my favorite lines of any song ever

I understand if your heart has been won, but I'd still like to know if I'm still in the game.

Somehow he writes these kind of melodramatic lyrics but because of the melodies and the way he sings them, they just come across as crazy romantic and not weepy emo.

Anyway, listen for yourself, it's a great song, his voice is sexy, and it will kind of make you feel the girl in a John Cusack movie.

Show Me Yourself - Griffin Hou...