I'm Popular

Okay, so not really... But it totally fits with my post, and the song I wanted to use fits with my post and you'll see why, so read on...

First off, I talked to my cousin (this would be Elka) on the phone yesterday. Funny how you picture someone sounding one way and then they don't, and you kind of have to get used to it :). I was wrong, though... I told her it had been like 17 years since we last spoke. However, that's not true. Back in 1995 (man, that must have been a banner year, since that's the year I'm going to talk about some more in this post), well, maybe it was 1996, she and her sister went down to Panama, because they had other cousins there as well. So I actually have a bunch of pictures from the day they came to spend with us... After my trip to the Northeast, I will post a now and then :). Funny how you forget about those things!!! So, it's only been 11 years since I last saw her :). But life sure has changed since then... Anyway, I told her she sounded different than I imagined she would. She laughed and said I sound older than she thought I would (another confirmation about Grandma Hila??? :) ). haha... Anyway, I commented that I probably sound Southern (and to you lifetime Southerners, I know I don't sound Southern to you, but I know from experience that, when I speak with someone with whom I haven't spoken in 10 years, they notice the difference) and she said, "Yeah, you do have some of that Southern drawl in you..." So, I guess that confirms it, I'm going to really stand out as an obnoxious tourist when I go up to the NE in a month - no chance to blend in (of course, I don't know if I could do the Northern "New Yawk" thing like a native Yankee anyway :)).... Anyway, she and I had a fun conversation, and I just keep getting more excited every day about my trip and seeing her and my aunt and meeting others I haven't met yet :).

So, fast foward a few hours... I sat in class last night (instead of listening to the presentation - bad Hila) pondering how to fit everything into this blog. And the solution presented itself so well... So well, in fact, that I started smiling and then had to remember to STOP smiling because the presenters might think I'm strange... (Side-note: I have changed the word 'presenters' to 'presentors' and back again like 5 times, because I can't decide which is right and I'm too lazy to go look it up... So just know that it's one of those two, and if I chose the wrong one in the end, I'm sorry).

So, the song for this post is Nada Surf's "Popular." For those of you who don't know where this song is from... It came out the summer of 1995 (I know this because I was recording MTV videos back then, and I have this video recorded on a VHS tape). Okay, I just watched the video... Probably don't watch the whole thing (man, it seems tons worse now than it did when I recorded it 12 years ago).

So, this was my thought process while thinking up this blog post (and now you can see how my crazy mind works)... So I'm sitting in class last night, before class started. I'm telling my class-mate Andrea all about how I'm going to go to the Northeast. She's actually taking a weekend trip to New York in about a week and going to see a Broadway Play, so she was very understanding of my excitement :). So, my friend April walks into class, and she has a box that she sets in front of me and says, "Happy Birthday!" So I open the box. This is what was inside:

Ohhhhh Does that not look completely sinful and heavenly? (is that an oxymoron - sinful and heavenly? -- funny how we use those two words for things of this nature, and we use them interchangeably!!! -- sorry, random Nilla thought). It's almost too pretty to eat. But it smells sooo good. I have not eaten it yet, but I will keep you informed on what I'm sure will be one of the greatest taste adventures of my life. So, April had stopped at Edgar's Bakery in Birmingham (oh oh oh oh oh, soooo good) and bought me this individual cake. Okay, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the calories and fat of just an individual cake, but I bet every single calorie and gram of fat is worth it... Thanks again April!

So, I'm sitting there in class, thinking about telling Julie about this cake from Edgar's (because she and I went there together once), and I'm thinking she's going to say, "Oh my gosh! That's so nice..." or something along those lines. Which leads me to thinking about making some sarcastic comment about my popularity (hahaha). Which leads me directly to the song Popular by Nada Surf, and why? Well, because April has given me a recent connection to them...

So flashback: Last week, April was a bad student (just kidding)... She skipped class to go to.... (wait for it) ... a Nada Surf concert!! When she told me about it the previous week, she was like, "It's this band called Nada Surf." As though I didn't know who they were (because I guess a lot of people don't). So I was like, "As in the song 'Popular' Nada Surf???" And she was like, "YES!!" So I totally knew who she was talking about, and I thought that was totally cool that she was going to this concert (because, even though they have continued to produce albums, I only know them from the mid-90's, and this was a blast from the past for me). So then April calls me Sunday and tells me about how she actually got to meet the lead singer (whose name is Matthew). I asked: Did you take a picture with him? And she said "Yep! I'll send it to you!" So she did, and so, with her permission, I will post it here. How cool is that?? (Okay, maybe I'm a dork, but I think it's cool -- oh, and I'm probably a dork for like totally using the words 'like' and 'totally' like 5 million times in this blog post).

Haha... She told me that if I posted it, I had to say it was a picture of her and her boyfriend... Then she said she was kidding... But I did it anyway :). So, this is April with the lead singer of Nada Surf, whose video I recorded in 1995, and whose song (the same song: Popular) is currently one of my songs on my MP3 CD.

Okay, so that is how I made the leap from my mental sarcastic remark to Julie to Nada Surf and their song, and how I combined them all to make my blog post :) :) :). And now, perhaps, you have a better idea of how my crazy mind works... Aren't our brains wonderful???

And you know what? I'll go ahead and make this long, because I'm not going to be here tomorrow to torture you with another blog post :). So...

Today was the last day for Strive for Five. Good news all around!!! Yay! I personally have lost a total of 2.1 pounds since the beginning (okay, so not stellar weight loss, but weight loss nonetheless). Also, I'm shocked I didn't gain 5 pounds by just breathing in the wonderful aroma of that chocolate decadent cake last night... (and this morning)... My team did not quite reach its goal of losing 10 pounds, but we did lose over half of the goal. We started out at 432 and finished up at 426.6. So we were excited. We each got a certificate for finishing, a T-shirt, and we were supposed to get a picture of all of us on the scale. Well, for some reason, ours was like the only one not down there. They said they would track us down and give us the picture. Here's to hoping, because I was totally bummed that we didn't get our picture and therefore I could not blog it today... (if we ever get it, I'll post it then).

But, then it occurred to me: I brought my camera in for the cake pictures!!! So, I made us all put on our t-shirts and take a picture. So, here we are in all our Striving for Five glory (L to R - Le, Annie, and Hila):

And before long, I'll be free for the day, so it's been a WONDERFUL week, turning 27 and all :).