the most surprising comment i've received came a couple of days ago from a customer at the store. i had helped him pick out some binoculars a couple of months before and asked him how he liked them. his face went blank and then said something to the effect of not recognizing me. he said i seemed like a completely different person and i must have been having a bad day when he was in here last because i was in a really bad mood.

you see, i don't think i ever realized how much of an affect my moods had on other people until now. even people that i would spend 20 minutes with in the store could see the difference. everyone i work with teases me now. "you're always smiling" they keep telling me. i catch myself from time to time. "what the hell am i so happy about?" it's not happy.

it's normal.

today, while doing a photo shoot for our executive chef, he asked me to say something funny so his smile wouldn't look forced.

i tried hard to think of a funny joke, but just blanked. after a couple of minutes of sitting there, thinking. i turned to him and said, "pants."


he laughed for ten minutes.

damn, i'm funny.

last night i dreamed that we were on our honeymoon. we were on a boat off of venice looking back onto st. mark's square. it was really beautiful and the sun was shining. we were heading to switzerland to stay at a small inn. i showed you the canals and the amazing churches. you smiled and held tight onto my arm.

it's party time!

if you can't join us tonight. check out the party on the chimchim cam.

jeremy and i have decided to throw a party this saturday.

see, you only turn 25 once. unfortunate as that is, i've still decided that it would be fun to have folks over for my birthday.

i still feel as though i'm 25, and that is all that is important. so there will be a large soirée here at the house on saturday evening. i will try and sent out invites to all my friends out there, but am likely to forget some of you. we will start up activities around 7:30. bring stuff to pour into glasses of course.

there will be couches and floors to crash on.

(no... i'm not really 25. but who's counting?)

it really is true.

cat's are much larger than you think.