Hijacked. The time has come to repay a certain someone for a certain "favor" she paid me a little while back....

This is Becky - the big sister (older, wiser) of your friend Katie. This is my stolen opportunity for me to tell you so many of the wonderful things that I am lucky enough to know about her. For example:

Did you know that there is actual video footage of Katie urinating on our family's back patio?

Katie and a team of friends once performed choreographed dances to christian R&B songs (oxymoron) - on stage.

Katie was a member of her high school swimteam.

Did you know that Katie frequently calls her big sister from remote locations asking the question, "Are you near a computer?" - using me as her own personal Onstar system?

Katie had a very nasty habit of tattling on her older siblings when we were younger. Most of my punishments came about as a result of her being an undercover operative for our parents.


However, rather than ratting Katie out on the most embarassing moments and details (I've held the best ones back), I'll take this opportunity to tell you what a cool person Katie is. Of course, you should already know this, being that you're fammiliar enough with her to be reading her blog. But, just in case, let me just reiterate...

I am often in awe of my little sister. She's incredibly brave - moving across the country to take a new job, find a new place to live, and meet an entirely new group of friends and acquaintances. She's a people magnet - people who take the time to get to know her really like her. (Some days I'm a little mystified by that...) She's got an outstanding sense of humor, a glowing personality, and stunning good looks (I got robbed). She's not much of a housekeeper, but then neither am I. She cooks better than I do, and she puts up with a lot of crap from my brother and me, so she's obviously got some level of patience and understanding. There's nothing more fun than razzing my sister, and she's a willing participant. Most of the time.

I've had a great time hanging out with Katie these last few days, and this time has made it very clear in my mind that I'm ready for her to come home. So, those of you who are included in her new group of SOCAL friends...don't get too attached, because I want her back.

no news on jeff yet. all i've heard is that they're still waiting. from what i know, he's still in the hospital. i'll let you know when i hear anything.

my mom and sister come in tomorrow morning. into san diego at 10.30. i think they're planning on going to the zoo in the morning. none of us have ever been to the san diego zoo.

i'm pretty excited about having some time off. it's going to go really fast but i'm excited to see them. in the mean time, i'm cleaning like crazy. my dog is worried, she doesn't know whats happening.

my cousin, jeff, was in a motorcycle accident last night and he's in the hospital. from what i understand, we're waiting to hear if he's going into surgery. he is in the ICU for internal bleeding. he just got married last new years eve, and his wife was out of town so his parents and his wife met him at the hospital. keep him in your prayers if you could. also, he's uninsured. so, three to four days in ICU is going to be extrememly expensive, especially if they operate.

i'll keep you updated

okay, i was just watching dane cook do some comedy. the guy is hysterical.

he was waiting in line behind this guy who turned and sneezed

dane says: God bless you
guy says: yeah, i'm an atheist

danes thought was: what am i supposed to say to you. i don't know you're an atheist. what should i say, "ah, when you die, nothing happens."

keeps talking about this guy and how after that comment, the guy asks what dane believes, dane tells him he was raised catholic and answered a couple more questions. the guy asked dane what will happen when he dies, dane explained that he hopes when he gets to heaven his relatives are waiting there for him like at an airport. the guy is laughing at him the whole time. dane asked what he believes will happen when the guy dies. the guy says his body will become one with the earth, he'll become fertilizer, and then grow into a tree. dane laughed to himself and thought, "and he's laughing at what i believe?" and then thought, no this is good. i hope he does become a tree. i hope he's in the middle of the forest. i hope that some day, some huge sweaty guy comes walking through the woods with an axe, chops him down, throws a chain around him and drags him through the mud and the muck and throws him into a paper mill. they pound him down into paper, and you know what would be great? if they printed the bible on it.

i laughed out loud at that one. so great.

so i was walking out of work tonight with my friend josh, and we're walking and we're talking and just as we get close to the parking garage, i look up and make eye contact with this guy. and i must have looked at him like, "i think i know that guy." cause he did the, "you do know me, but just keep walking" head nod. and as i pass him, i realize it's this guy...



i looked at josh and said, "hey, was that..." and josh said, 'yeah probably.' and we just kept walking.

then, i get on the freeway and i'm cruising along and i look over to my left and think, 'wow, that guy is really, REALLY good looking...and he kinda looks like tim mcgraw.' but, he and his wonderful life live in tennessee. so it couldn't have been him. then, the zippy little boxer like car goes zipping past me and the license plate reads, "timmcgrw." i still don't think it was him. i think it was a guy who looks like him and likes attention.

ON TOP OF THAT a super SUPER hot guy came into the store today and i got to work with him. not kidding you, i could have passed out he was so good looking. i couldn't even think straight. my boss said, 'wow, it's a good thing he left when he did, you were about an inch away from drooling.' and boy was i.

in honor of remembering the good times from the good old days, here is a picture of my group from high school. i'll put up better ones later where you'll actually see people but this is us from afar, at 'the dunes,' or the beach at lake michigan. i don't know how we managed it but we all made it to the beach on the same day.

we took swing lessons together, we went on church trips together, we did mission trips and served Jesus together, we made stupid scavenger hunts through south bend for one another and the list goes on. how crazy. i miss those days. those were the good days. well, it's official, i'm old. i just said 'good days.'

from left to right: chris stutzman, me, meredith, yvonne, amber, jeff, breedlove, todd, johnny, aaron beeson, marty, eric malkowski & robbie. wow. i don't remember much about that day but i know i had fun. we were such a group. someone asked me if i had the chance, if i'd go back to high school. i wouldn't. i'm happy now. but there are days that i would. that group of friends was the greatest thing a girl could ask for in high school. sure it all came crashing down once the couples started breaking up (ha ha ha) but, that's how high school is. what, like 2% of people who date in high school get married. it just sucked that once the couples split, so did the group.

i've even thought about calling everyone and getting the group back together for a kind of reunion while we're all semi still in the same stage of life (pre-children) but i know it's a like a 1 in a milllion chance. 'so you're telllin me there's a chance'

long live one accord! WOO HOO!

here is a picture of chris and i from high school. he was the love of my life then, it's weird going from seeing someone everyday, talking to them on the phone everyday and knowing everything in each others lives to knowing nothing and not having seen or talked in five years. life is so crazy.

here are some of the pictures that i promised. for more pictures go to this website

http://web.mac.com/k_holt/iWeb/Main%20/Random%20Fun.html

go to the page that says "random fun"

college memories

i was just looking through my college scrapbook and i came across some pictures from disney world. i LOVE disney world. i don't know, i think it has something to do with going there with the family when i was little. i can still see the seagull grabbing the icecream cone out of my sisters hand just like it was yesterday.

the college trip though. wow. it doesn't even seem like it was real.

here's how it happened.

there was a group of six of us that spent a bit of time together. i love these people. to this day and i don't even talk to any of them anymore but then, they were it. they were my every moment of every day and they are how i made it through four years of college. ryan sprenger, jessica einfeld, lauren radke, calvin roskam and nate funk. our lives that year could have easily been the dutch version of the tv show 'friends.'

so, ryan calls up our room one night and calls us over to the guys dorm (noordiwier-vanderwerp, not kidding, that's the name) to talk about an idea they had. when we get there, we are in this little pow-wow in the basement rec area and ryan mentions that he got an email from his aunt who was a travel agent about 'mystery flights' that were going out of grand rapids. you bought a ticket on northwest airlines for $70 for travel in one day. here's the kicker, you don't know where you're going. it could be florida, california, new york and a bunch of other places. i swear we debated for about two hours about how it was so much money and how it's a crazy idea. we decided that we'd do it and since i had a car, at 630 the next morning, i would buy the tickets. and i did. and on them, they said 'destination a'.

that's all we knew.

so at 5am on the morning of the 29th of october, i think, we headed to the 'grand rapids international airport,' international because you could fly to canada, and checked into our flight. and as we all six stood at the counter, the clerk said, 'have fun in orlando.' and we went crazy! so for the next few hours, we plotted and schemed about what to do while in orlando and we came to the conclusion that we needed to go to disney world.

we spent the day having the best time ever with some of the greatest people i've ever known. and by 10pm we were on a plane on our way back to michigan where it was cold and rainy. i remember on our way to my car, where we fit all 6 of us into a '91 honda civic, we just kept saying, 'michigan sucks.'

and that day will forever be one of the days that i will remember forever. i'll post pictures too.

and disney has a world of more stories. i'll tell another one tomorrow. :o) just for kicks.

dreaming of a day with the mouse,
k

so, i survived the drunk dial. it was funny to catch up on people from high school that i haven't seen or heard from in so long. it's crazy to me how many people turned out to be gay. who knew?!? well, i'm not gonna lie, there were a couple of people that i think everyone knew but them, but still, shocking.

the other weird thing is hearing about all the people who are not only married, but have children. that just freaks me out. IM NOT READY! at least not for kids, for crying out loud, i'd be the person to lose a kid in a store and not realize it until two hours later. or better yet a mcdonalds...it happened to me!!!

so the following day, with high school fresh in my mind, i got into my brain to track down one of my best friends from college. chris stutzman. i found him. a couple wrong numbers, a call to his girlfriends grandparents, a call to his girlfriends parents and then a call to his girlfriend, and i found him. he sounds exactly the same, i just wish i would have found him when we were living in the same geographical area. i would love to see a couple people from high school. it's just so...i don't know, i feel like i'm a completely different person. i don't know that i really am, but i feel like i am. maybe next time i go home i'll track some people down.

i got a really strange phone call today. for some reason, my phone is attracting odd calls like moths to a flame. it was a company asking to talk to me about my resume. the funny thing is, i don't remember applying to that company. so, let's see where that goes.

oh yeah, uncle mark, there is an opening for my exact job in bonita springs, florida...i think that's not too far from you. i got it in an email. thought you'd get a kick out of that.

until next time america,
k

i just got drunk dialed by an old friend from high school.

this is really funny. i'm actually still on the phone with him.

nothing, NOTHING has changed.

the best thing, he won't remember this tomorrow.

yowza

sunset behind the montage in laguna beach

i decided that should i get married, i need to be within driving distance of this beach because the pictures would be spectacular. this picture has a tiny little bride and groom out on the rocks. i LOVE this beach. cali does too but every time i took a picture of her she tried to attack, it was pretty funny for on-lookers.



my three days off are over and i'm not ready for them to be. everyone said i'd be bored after three days off...not so much. i could do this for a living. who could i get to pay me to stay home, knit scarves and go to the beach.

I WENT SAILING!!!

my friends sharon and steve took me sailing tonight. i LOVED it. okay, in all honesty, i was a little worried a couple times just because it was a little new, there's a hand rail on the boat with a couple imprints of my hands since i was holding on so tight. but it was incredible. so, here are a couple shots from the trip.

sharon-great shot of the flag!!

if you look at my eyes, you will see what terror looks like. steve told me to 'just keep it going straight' so he could take the picture and i don't know that i've been that afraid before. i had no idea what i was doing! but, alas, we did not die.



i am pulling my hardest on this rope that i have no idea what it did or what it was attached to, i was told to pull, so i pulled. it was a lot harder to do than i thought. i used to think i had upper body strength, this is where i was proved to be incorrect.




it was such a great day. i had to go to traffic court, which normally is not really a good thing, but my cop didn't show up so i got my money back and it doesn't go on my record. then, i got to go sailing which could be one of my new favorite things to do. then, we went to this really cool fish store that steves friend runs with tons of salt water tanks and all the cool things that go in them. it makes me want a salt water tank, but lets face it, i'd kill anything i put in it. then, we went to this great restarant and had some dinner/breakfast and malts. so much fun. it was such a great day off.

i've started knitting my scarves again. i love it, it's so relaxing. i'm knitting a brown one right now. and i found out tonight that while living in california, it's a good idea to bring a scarf while sailing in the evening. who knew?!?!

yar matey.
k

i don't have internet access in my house.

i'm mooching off of a local neighbor who hasn't set a password on their network. (thank you!)

i'm a little bitter. it would have been nice to have a heads up of when it would be turned off, maybe a notice from the roommate saying, 'hey, by the way, instead of having it stopped on the 16th, i called today." but no, when i got home from work at 930 tonight i found a note that said, "i transferred my service so i took everything with me."

my opinion is going down. the respect is going out the window and it's working out for the best that i'll be having a new roommate. frustration is at an all time high.

i don't even have to have internet or tv for that matter. but a 'hey, thought i'd mention" during the entire EIGHT HOURS we spent together at work, would have been appreciated.

yowza

so t-mobile has a new commercial out right now, here's how it goes.

one guy standing at a sink in a bathroom with the door open, his friend comes to the door with the first guys cell phone. the guy with the phone says, "dude, why do you have my girlfriend in your five?" and the sink guy comes over and says, 'what?' and the phone guy says, "you don't give another guys girlfriend a foot massage and you definitely don't put her in your five!" and the sink guy says, "i think you're over reacting to something...."

the phone rings, the ring tone is, "we're secret lovers, that's what we are." the sink guy says, "um, i should get that."

the camera angle changes to show just the guy standing outside the bathroom door, a shot from down the hall, and all you see is a hand reach out and slowly take away the phone from the his friend.

i LOVE this commercial. i laugh every time!

so here's my new idea. since i work in retail and i don't get any days off from nov. 2 through jan 15, and i will be spending pretty much all holidays by myself, i'm going to try to talk some of my friends from home and other places (evansville, ft myers, beaver city - p.s. kyle, you really need to move towns) to come spend new years in southern california. it's going to happen. it is, going to happen. let the persuasion begin.