Here in Katie’s Head

Today is Twig Sunday.

Twig Sunday? What is that?

Well, it’s a tradition that my church borrowed from…somewhere old. I don’t remember who George attributed it to — I should have paid more attention give how much I like the idea.

Okay, so you get a small bundle of twigs. Only a few. And you think of all the worries and stresses and frustrations and other bad things that happened this year and you put all of those bad things onto the twigs. I like to come up with something for each twig to represent.

Okay, got all your problems of 2001 transferred to these twigs? Good.

Now burn them.

Yeah, light them on fire and watch them burn. Everything that sucked about last year is gone.

It’s not unlike a lot of other New Year’s traditions. But I like it because (a) it involves fire and (b) I, um, like twigs? I dunno. I just like it.

So back to my point: It’s twig Sunday, so go find some twigs of your own.

Posted: 3:16 pm · Category: Church · Comments: None

So Rae and I took a road trip yesterday. Yep, drove 140 miles to see Trent.

And you know what? He’s a pretty cool guy.

We ate cookies and drove around and Deborah ate whipped cream and…yeah, there’s really not much to do in Kansas.

But it was superfun!

Math Quiz: If it took me about 1.5 hours to drive home and the legal speed limit is 70 mph, how much would my speeding ticket have cost me if I got pulled over?

Posted: 12:42 pm · Category: Misc Friends · Comments: 1

My dear friend Brandon has become obsessed with phones.

But it’s kinda cute.

Posted: 7:52 pm · Category: Brandon · Comments: 2

Exprs Lane: you’re the greatest present ive ever got!

Merry Christmas to everyone out there. I hope you’ve got someone to love at this time of year, and if not, I hope you’ll find them in the next year.

Winter’s always been a trying time of year for me. It’s hard being alone and depressed at Christmas. Not this year, though. I’ve been lucky.

I hope everyone gets their Christmas wishes, greedy or no. And no matter what you find under the tree, remember I love you guys. :-)

Posted: 12:49 am · Category: Justin · Comments: None

I found an old card Rae set me last summer.

On the front are two funny looking cats. Text reads: “We’re going to be friends forever!”

Inside: “…Or until one of us gets a life!”

Too true!

She wrote me a note on the inside. It makes me laugh.

Hey, I’m havin’ a great time her in sunny NEWTON! Okay, okay, it’s hot & humid but fun nonetheless. We’re in a crap dorm w/ a leaky shower but I gots a room all to myself! HOT DANG! We also have a fridge that had a jar of pickles in it and nothing else! Heh! Hope you’re having great fun without me! :( Love, Rae PS: How’s Brandon? Ha ha. PPS: Are you & Eric married yet? Ha ha ha ha ha.

Oh, that Rae, she’s a character!

Posted: 6:57 pm · Category: Rae · Comments: None

My first Christmas present [besides socks and money, which are not exciting enough to count], was from Justin.

It’s a fish!

Last night, he told me he bought me a puppy. I said I couldn’t take care of a puppy. He said that’s okay, because he didn’t really get me a puppy.

So instead, I have a fish, which I should be able to handle. It’s a beta and it’s got a nice little tank with a door that latches so the cat can’t eat him. And it’s name is Necro because we thought he was dead. Several times.

It turns out Necro is just lazy like me.

So how many days do you think it will be before Google starts linking to me when people search for “necro”?

PS > I got Justin a Guster hat and all of TMBG UnLtd on CDs. He was happy, so I’m happy too.

Posted: 6:38 pm · Category: Justin · Comments: None

I figured it’s about time to post the Yellow Underwear Story, since it’s close to New Year’s and all.

It is a Columbian [as in the South American country] tradition to give a gift of yellow underwear for your loved ones for New Year’s Eve. Just before midnight, you give them the underwear, they change into it, and then the next year will be lucky.

I am not generally a supersticious person, but I will not go without yellow underwear at midnight on December 31st!

You see, until 1999, I had a ho-hum life. Nothing too exciting. Then that year, my mother introduced me to the Yellow Underwear Tradition. I was having a party with all my girl friends to celebrate the coming of 1999, and Mom bought yellow underwear [specifically, thongs -- it was all she could find] for all of us. At 11:45, we all changed into our new lucky underwear, giggling because we’d never worn thongs before and…well, it’s an experience.

1999 was a great year for Katie. First boyfriend, first kiss, first job. Made great friends with some people I still hold very dear. And I owe it all to Yellow Underwear.

On the eve of 2000, I was going to a party at Danny Meyer’s house. Embarrassed to change there, I put on my lucky underwear early. This fucked it all up. You can’t put it on 5 hours early, apparently. 2000 was miserable! Full of unrequited love, trouble with teachers, bad driving experiences [as this was the year I finally, after years of practice, got my driver's license].

So I decided to start 2001 off right. I stashed the lucky yellow undies in my purse and headed out to a party at Paul’s house. They all teased when I headed up to the bathroom at 11:45 to do my little New Year’s ritual, but I didn’t care.

And what happened then?

2001 was the Year of the Katie. Best. Year. Ever. Full of romance, scandal, fun vacations, hysterical hyjinks, 18th birthdays, money, and lots of material wants. There’s nothing else to explain it but the lucky underwear.

So today we bought lots of yellow underwear and Mom is wrapping it as we speak. I got a pair for Rae, too.

2002 is going to be every bit as good as 2001, I can feel it.

So, these are the requirements for making lucky yellow underwear work for you:

1. It must be a gift, bought and paid for by someone other than the person who will end up wearing it.
2. It must be yellow. Style is not important. I would warn against patterns that merely include yellow–at least get one where the main color is yellow. You don’t want to screw this up!
3. You have to put it on just a few minutes before midnight. But don’t wait until the very last minute, or you’ll miss the countdown on TV. :-)

Happy New Year’s!

Posted: 12:03 pm · Category: Theories · Comments: 4