quiet in the grass of dusk and summer.

it's a saturday night early in the throws of summer. my partners in crime have abandoned me for the exotic lands of mejico and new york. left to my own devices, i find myself in bed, complete with mom-esque nightgown, a fine piece of literature, mango strawberry sonic slush provided by my dad, and this here new macbook (thanks moms and pops!) that has been my source of entertainment lately. it's been a fine, yet lonely, fiesta.

i just ended another day with a bowl of frosted flakes. it's a rather good thing i have zero interest in or tolerance for illegal substances, because something tells me i have an addictive personality. i have earned my stripes, i'm a slave to tony the tiger.

summer started out sleepless. i was an insomniac the last few days of school, and then that first night was spent at d-land grad night take 2. seeing as i was hopped up on sour patch kids and being used as a pillow, i didn't get much rest on the way there. i must say i preferred this trip, mostly because we got to start out at california adventure this time. i loved beginning with a brilliant tower of terror experience, soup in a bread bowl, california screamin, the revelation that my childhood dreams of fair representation for pocahontas may soon come true with the new water show, and last but far from least, my first ride on the newly re-opened and renovated "mickey's fun wheel" which just happens to be my favorite ferris wheel in all of my obsession with ferris wheels! i would have been happy to be done after that really, but we managed to entertain ourselves well for the next six hours in disneyland too. lots of rides and only a few incidents, including an awkward conversation with the adventureland bracelet engraving girl about how my real name is yarm but no i don't have any i.d. to prove it and why doesn't that sound like a real name.. and another involving me on the floor of the ice cream shop on main street. long story.

upon our return, my favorite parents had scheduled me a massage, an effort to help relieve four years of stress and tension. i daresay it felt like heaven on earth! i only wish it could have lasted all day instead of just an hour.

the rest of the day was a blur of time spent at leah's pool, panera with kori and stefan, an exchange on my driveway that could only be described as hysterical (in both senses of the word), a little family bonding, and then an exhaustion induced coma.

the next day was cooper and riley's baptism. it blows my mind that they're already so grown up! i feel like it wasn't that long ago i was picking up carl's jr. chicken stars with my dad on the way back to the hospital while they were still "baby a" and "baby b". they're so funny. the other night when i babysat them, i was laying in bed with riley and thinking about how much i'm going to miss them next year. even though they're so grown up now, not much has changed really. cooper is still too independent to ever let me cuddle with him, and riley's the same softy he's always been. i love being their favorite older sister! all three of my younger brothers impress me with their athletic ability that i never got, but even more impressive was seeing two little boys related to this tone-deaf family singing beautifully for everyone at their baptism. it had the grandmas in tears. it was an entirely wonderful day!

since then, my summer days and nights have consisted of the following:

-an offroading adventure in which i nearly got my arm torn off

-friends invading my bedroom to drag me away from my reading

-talks on the basketball court

-bike rides all around our hood with the trusty bike brigade

-midnight tropical smoothie runs

-sleepovers in jessica's bed (four more of those to come next week)

-being talked into swimming in kori's pool

-an attempt at my annual summer deep clean/organization/restoration project on my room, thwarted by a flood in the bathroom. long story short, i'm incompetent.

-more bike rides

-sonic runs in the fj

-luv-it's runs in the jeep

-a trip to the gym that was the epitome of my exercise ADD

-more swimming

-gettin my hair did

-lunch and conversation at lovely bj's

-picking up my sweet nicole from the airport

-lawry's with the leavitt fam, where disappointingly kori did NOT perform a show from the inside of one of the large silver transporters, but i did have a lovely experience with the "chocolate bag"

which leads me to...

GRADUATION. a monumental stepping stone and another great thursday in the history of great thursdays in my life. it was a cause for a few nervous stomach aches and the chills. later, after watching my speech that my dad recorded on tv, i was relieved to see that i didn't necessarily look overly nervous... just pissed off. i apologize to everyone who was there for shaking too badly to be able to pull off a smile or two. the chills were mostly from seeing all the people in our class that i've grown to love, and listening to our graduation song play throughout the arena. "the adventure" by the one and only angels & airwaves. pure brilliance. all went well with the day's events. i didn't even trip on stage or anything.

they turned down $5 each to give me a kiss on the cheek for this picture. since when are they too cool to kiss their sister in public!?

i'm so glad we got to fly marquez in for the occasion!!

best teacher ever. i'll miss his life lessons.

possibly our coolest piggy back picture yet. definitely our most dangerous.

love that brother. love that buca di beppo.

they always had cooler barbies than me. i'll always love them :)

then jessica and kori left town and the rest of thursday and all of friday were spent with nicole. just loving life, as she does best. begun at barnes & noble, our time together was destined for greatness. we found a great sale at gap, basked in the heaven that is fresh squeezed jamba orange juice, bought string, got take out pei wei, and spent a night in the basement mastering the art of friendship bracelets and watching the first half of the notebook, since i hadn't seen it in years. we were asleep by 11:00. no graduation parties for this party animal! i much prefer it that way. plus we'd gone to bed around 3:45 the night before, so i was exhausted. friday we awoke and i made breakfast, one of my specialty smoothies, and we spent the morning immersed in our books, followed by an expedition to town square. cpk, more sale finds, yogurtland, and a fine film. besides a scare in which i lost my phone for a while, it was a fine day! it's been a beautiful summer so far. regarding the weather i mean. vegas has nearly california-fied itself, minus the humidity. i couldn't be more pleased.

i think i'll end at that. content. that's how i'd describe myself right now. years from now i hope i read this and remember the friends and the nights and the grass and the skies. that's why i do this, to remember. i'm a forgetful one who thrives on memories. therefore i find it beneficial to store them away somewhere for the future. regardless of if anyone else takes any interest in the small details of my life, i do. and that's enough.

so, i'll just be here, snuggled up, loving life.

as you were...