August--the month of my birth!

Week 1: Holy Kim back in town! Wooooooo! I missed her so much. You have no idea. My partner in crime back in action. We totally nerded out--I know you're surprised--and attended a birthday for Harry Potter. I bet you didn't know Harry turned 33 on July 31st did you? We also went to my first country bar. It was...interesting...good people watching. Kim and I went with our other girls from the workout class where I met these wonderful people, Dana, Jaclyn and Yaz. There were people young and old decked out in boots, dresses, cut off t-shirts, cowboy hats, you name it. It was the oddest mix of dress and folk I've ever seen. And so many of them knew all the steps to every dance. We stayed until the bar closed at 2 and walked outside and stood in a circle. "Well, now we can say we've done that!" Kim said. "Yeah, that was...an experience," Dana said. "We came, we saw, we laugh," I said. "We left," Yaz said. "Alone," both Jacyln and I answered. Yep that pretty much sums it up.

Week 2: Kim left on Sunday of the second week of August and we met Dana at Dario's for brunch. None of us had ever been there. I got a pear and brie crepe. Holy goodness. I love food. Not new, but I also found myself back at the country bar that I did not enjoy the week before. I went back with friends that I play volleyball with on a Wednesday night. Wednesday night and that place was more hopping than it had been the previous Saturday. People were two-stepping and swing-wing-dinging all over that dance floor. My friends Nate and Scott helped me realize what is so awful about that place--the lights are all on and the dance floor is in the middle of the bar so everyone can see you and your idiot moves. As the world's worst dancer, it's no wonder I was more into the people watching. That weekend then was the weekend of my family's annual lake party. My little brother just turned 21 and this was the first weekend for him to go out in Norfolk being of age. I was super excited to hang with him and Emily one of my best friends from high school and several friends from Omaha who came home with me. My brother's friend Max brought his wakeboard. I've been skiing since birth and have slalomed since I could balance on one leg (so I was like 3 that's right--haha jokes!) so I've never tried to wakeboard. I got up for 10 seconds and screamed like a little girl the whole time. That was new. I took my friends out to see the glory of Norfolk's night life and at the end of the night Emily and I decided we'd take them to the Depot. AKA The Underbelly of the Earth located on the corner of Where Dreams Die and Loneliness and Desperation meet. We walk up to the door and I told everyone not from Norfolk that they are not allowed to talk to anyone or touch anyone because they could get knifed. Yes. In Norfolk, Nebraska. I'm not kidding you this is a shady hangout. Of course we walk onto the dance floor and that rule was immediately broken by an accidental backing up into a crazy drunk girl. I'm also pretty sure Tanner danced with a homeless man--the like-Bern dance nonetheless. In the end we made it out alive. There's a one man band that plays at our lake party and he is pretty dang good. He was still playing when we got back to the lake at 1am so we of course proceeded to sing and dance and play his tambourines for him. Because that's what you do at 2am.

Week 3: I decided I need to have one day of the week where I don't set foot in the gym where I work. I love my job. But I think this will be really good for me. Not very exciting but I did make this new commitment to myself--to be better about me-time.

Week 4: The week before my birthday! My golden birthday at that: 25 on the 25th. My friends Jenny and Dana were both out of town and my friend Lori didn't have a babysitter and I was in training mode for a triathlon so I decided to wait to have a big going-out birthday for a couple of weeks. The weekend of my birthday I got to go to a Storm Chasers' baseball game, get a pedicure with my friend Emily, have birthday brunch with good friends and a lot of my family, play snort and have crazy good wedding cake. I also found my cupcake soulmate. I went to a wedding reception the night before my birthday in West Point, Nebraska. West Point is a small town I drive through whenever I go home to Norfolk. I've actually never stopped and gone anywhere there other than the VFW where my dearest karaoke partner Nate and I stopped on our way home to Omaha. The people of West Point will probably forever remember us by our karaoke names, Jamie and Joey. Anyway I went to a wedding reception and afterward we went to this small town bar with shuffleboard, a patio and a live band. Dive bar heaven! I won shuffleboard, danced like a fool and after midnight the band sang me Happy Birthday. Good way to start age 25.

Week 5: I turned 25! Soooooo oldballs.