5.28.07

Monday:

We shop, we eat, we walk. A lot. Because that’s all my family knows how to do when we’re around one another. I'm seriously thankful that they too like to walk so much, it helps balance out all of the filling of the face. We begin our day at Macy's where I find zip. My mom, my Aunt, and two cousins however have no trouble finding anything. We hit several other shops and I still don't spend any money. I begin to crave a pretzel so we make a quick stop at Auntie Anne's. My mother just happens to have a free pretzel card in her purse. The card looks as if it has been around for quite some time. I joke and ask her if she first got it when I was born and has been spending the last thirty years filling it up. I was excited that I was now the lucky recipient of the free goods. We head to Old Navy and I hit it pretty hard, I don’t remember the last time I visited their establishment. A year? Maybe two. Anyway, I find some jeans similar to ones I’ve seen about town and decide I can’t live without them. I grab two pairs of jeans and two long sleeved shirts to wear under polos, ts and such and make my way to the dressing room. They fit, are all on clearance, and I am out of there. We hit a million other stores, but I am strong and save my money. I do disgust both of my cousins by purchasing some shampoo at Bath & Bodyworks that smells exactly like iced tea with lemon. I mean come on, I think I give off that scent anyway considering how much of it I drink. We stop at Kohl's where I am unable to resist the urge to by some more cute underwear. It was buy one get one half off, how could I not. We bid my cousins farewell and head back to my Aunt's. I spend an hour in the sun working on my tan and reading my book. We eventually make our way over to my cousin's house for a cookout. Little Snickers, their dog, warms my heart as she tends to do. She is both the smallest and cutest thing I have ever seen. We go on a mile walk to my other cousin's house for a brief visit. We then head back to cousin #1's house for more Blurt! Along the way we see two boys hanging out in a driveway. One of the boys heads off on his motorcycle and we walk in the opposite direction. Chels says she knows the boys from school. Snickers walks with us and seriously cracks me up the entire way. As we approach the house several police cars go flying by us, lights flashing. My cousin wanted to surprise me with a DQ ice cream cake but after they drove there, they found it closed because of the holiday. So she whipped up another ice cream surprise for us, waffle bowls. Her husband shortly arrived home from work and told us there was a bad accident involving someone on a motorcycle. We later learn that the kid we saw walking and then driving off misjudged a curve and slammed into a telephone pole. He lived, but they had to amputate on of his legs. This really freaks me out, the fact that we saw him right before it happened. While playing Blurt! Chels gets some texts from one of her friends about the accident. My cousin's husband jokes with her and asks her who could be texting her since I'm sitting right next to her. I inform him that I'm texting her with my butt. My cousin tells him that I have mad skills, and for some reason he walks out of the room shaking his head. We head back to my Aunt's house and she turns on the news to see if they talk about the accident. I discover that Charles Nelson Riley has passed away, thanks to the local Michigan 11 p.m. news, and my fragile little heart breaks. I spent the summer of 2005 falling in love with him and his amazing wit with three daily installments of the Match Game.