Life is what happens.

Whether you're busy making other plans or not...life just keeps happening.

Sometimes life happens when you get to go wedding dress shopping with your sister. I was so glad to get to be a part of that! It was an experience that included waking up at 5am, trying to get a peek at the Starbucks drive-through guy from the passenger seat of my mom's car (all I could tell was that he had a cute chin), and sitting in a chair (& occasionally on the floor) as my sister tried on well over a dozen dresses at two different bridal shops. But all of it was more than worth it to get to see the look on my sister's face when she walked out of the dressing room in 'the dress'. I can't describe it, there was just this glow on her face!! The dress is beautiful...and just so 'her'! Life happened.

Sometimes life happens when your pants rip. Right up the seam of your back pocket. While you're at work...that's when this happens:

Yeah, I patched them...and my co-workers agree with my decision to do so. Why get rid of a pair of jeans because there is a rip in them? Especially when I can make them somewhat perfectly decent-ish again. There is no point in buying a brand-new pair of pants so I can sit in a sand box. It is a total waste of money. If I am going to buy new pants, I am not going to sacrifice them by exposing them to glitter, glue, paint, snot, peanut butter and bleach water! Life happened.

Sometimes life happens when you're cruising down the road going 38 mph on your way home from work:

If this little pink slip of paper doesn't look at all familiar to you, consider yourself lucky! This is what a speeding ticket looks like. I thought I was driving at a perfectly respectable speed...I didn't realize I was going through a school zone. Suddenly, my 'perfectly respectable speed' is 13mph over the speed limit. Now I have to go through traffic school and all the blah blah blah that comes from not paying close enough attention.

Life happened!

Today I decided...

to go back to school...
Okay, traffic school. For that ticket I got back in June.
I signed up for an online course, and it's a good thing there weren't any cops in my house cause I sped through that at approximately 82 miles an hour (the speed that got me the ticket in the first place). College really honed my skimming skills, and what my mom predicted would take all day took me all of 45 minutes...

Back when I got my little citation and traffic school was given as an option to erase this transgression from my permanent record, mom was keen to send me to an in-class traffic school..."maybe you'll meet someone" was her justification.
Which means I would have to plan a cute outfit, because as a friend of mine says (and my mother would agree) "you never know when you're going to meet your husband" which is a really lame way to go through life, but it seems as if that's everyone's concern for my life right now (especially my mother)
Wednesday I went to the store with my mom and we were talking about the Middle School Gathering I just got back from, and she actually asked if there were "any single, male youth directors there"...because I have time to check that out while I'm busy wrangling nine 6th-8th graders.
But seriously, this is her favorite question. My first summer at camp she was all "did you meet any nice boys?" Which, yeah-they guys at camp were nice...they were also like brothers after the summer, which y'know, is gross.
Last night we were talking about this hipster long-term sub at my dad's school (mostly because my sister and I think it's funny that hipsters exist in Tulare) and my mom was all "is he single?" (The answer, in case you were all wondering-is no. He has a girlfriend in Spain...because, as a hipster, he spent time there after college).

So I decided that I'm going to make up an imaginary boyfriend to get my mother (and the rest of my family this Christmas) off my case. I think I'll call him 'Drew' and tell everyone I met him at that 'singles Bible study' my mom is always telling me to go to...I already know what I want my ideal guy to be like, so making up a personality shouldn't be difficult...that should keep them off my back for a while.