Hey, why not?

So, I called Jack Jenkins today and found out that he has a litter of puppies (currently one week old), and he would absolutely love to sell me one in about 6 weeks, which is, uh, pretty much perfect timing for coming home from Tommy and Samantha's wedding. I've been going back and forth between really wanting a precious little pug puppy and wanting to make sure I'll be home enough to give it the attention it needs. Courtney and Phil are being great and offering to help out and are so excited for me, which is awesome, and... I just ate a Dove chocolate. Why is that relevant? Well, the message inside was "Hey, why not?".

Memphis and Other Adventures in May

Drive
10 People
Fried Pickles
Shooting at the Gun Range
Barbeque Festival
5:00 AM Wakeup
Triathlon
Golf/Nap and Shop Time
Dinner!
Wrapping 50+ cookie cutters
Drive
3 hour nap

That's the sushi roll of Memphis in May weekend! After the Intermediate Photography field trip to the Sheldon Art Gallery, Trey and I met the Dutton's at Ted Drewes for some famous St. Louis ice cream, and it was sooo good! Apparently when Trey was a kid, he threw his shoe out the window there so he could go back and get more, and it worked. Smart kid! I'd go for another brownie concrete even if it meant losing my favorite pair of shoes (ok, maybe that's a little extreme).

We hit the road early on Saturday after really yummy sticky buns and got to Memphis in time for lunch with the fam at Cafe Etc. Then Mom and Dad took Ben, Phil, and Trey to the gun range, while Courtney and I went to swim the tri course, and Steph took the kids home for a nap. On the way out to the course, Courtney and I were blasting, "Shorty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low" in my car when she stopped and goes, "Hey, did you know that our parents just traded all three of their daughters in for 3 sons?" We were slightly hurt... Anyway, when we got back (after winning $1 off Ben for swimming across the pool), we headed to BBQ Festival to eat more!! The ribs were pretty much the most amazing thing I have ever eaten-- the meat just fell off the bone! Trey and I went to the Missouri Mule tent to find his friends from Barney's, but they weren't there, so we met up with my family again and took pictures down by the river before we headed home.



The next morning was the 5AMer...Whoof! Phil, Courtney, Trey, and I got up first to get set up for the triathlon, and then Mom, Dad, and Amy (I was sooo excited to see her!) came a little later to watch! After doing all the set-up stuff, I was the first in our gang to head out, and I finished my mile in 24:56-- not exactly Lib Arts time, but I beat Courtney by a whole 17 seconds!! Ohhh yeah! Nevermind the fact that she had two more legs ahead of her... Then Phil was off to biking, and Trey was waiting for his first ever 10K. While we were waiting for Phil to get in, Amy, Trey, and I were discussing the quickest way to tag off for the next part, which involved throwing Phil's bike over the railing where Trey would catch it and rack it, and then Trey would start the run down, and by the time he made it back past the Relay area, Phil would be there to do a running chip strap! While we were so busy discussing this, I looked up and almost said, "Hey, look! Someone else has a Deloitte shirt just like Phil!" but then I realized it actually was Phil, so there was a big rush to get him in and Trey out, lots of cheering, and then it was time for the last leg! Trey took it out fast (mind you, with no real training other than Frisbee in the afternoons when it wasn't gross and rainy, which were few and far between). Apparently, the first mile felt great! He thought it was about 7 minutes, but then the 5 miles ahead started to slow him down. I think I would have lost the will to live at the "Hey, now turn around and do it all again!" marker, but Trey kept going and ran faster to the finish than Amy or I could keep up with him after not having run a 10k, and one of our fellow triathletes gave him a gold medal for finishing the run! He finished in less than an hour, so that was awesome! Go Team Strength and Honor! Team Awesome, made up of Courtney, Emmeline, and Courtney Lynn, was really strong, but at the tag off between Emmeline and Courtney Lynn, the evil alter ego won over, and she didn't even do the run. Next year, I would suggest not asking Courtney Lynn to be on the team. You'll do better without her.

Even though Trey could barely walk, the guys went and played 9 holes of golf after lunch, while the girls crashed at home for a while and then went shopping. Sunday night was pretty chill, and Trey and I started wrapping 100 cookie cutters for Tommy and Samantha-- it was his idea to wrap them individually...Haha, but it all turned out great in the end! I was totally exhausted by the time we got back on Monday, so I slept from 3:50 PM to 6:50 PM and then went to bed again at 11 something and slept til 8 the next morning. Oh, how I love sleep!

Wednesday night we finally got to play Pixar Monopoly, and it was soo much fun! There were 7 of us, and we played from a little after 10 until 2 in the morning! I got to be Lightning McQueen, and Trey got the Great Barrier Reef, and I think everybody had a really good time! We had punch from Tommy and Samantha's shower and music, and Matt ended up winning even though he barely had any properties to start out.

This weekend was "Night at the Museum" on the Chapel Green on Friday, Saturday I cleaned like crazy, baked Choc Chip Banana Bread, and we played Pixar Monopoly again at the pub. Inspired by Pixar (and who wouldn't be?), Trey and I watched Cars after that! Sunday was absolutely insane but so much fun again! Here we go: get up, go to church, lunch with Dan and Adrian (learn that Dan got 2 tatoos...kind of--they are dots), Senior Women's Tea, leave early to get to Samantha and Tommy's shower-- I think they liked the cookie cutters, and they unwrapped them all,-- dinner at Barney's with the Duttons, ice cream at Fritz's with the Duttons, hail storm, looking at baby pictures of Trey (who I was expecting to be much bigger from all his talk, but he was just a really cute little kid), then back to Prin to start the week again!

My capstone is finally COMPLETELY DONE and TURNED IN!! However, if my career as an actuary fails, I do have backups:

1) Flower Arranger
2) Ribbon Bouquet Arranger
3) Banana Bread Baker
4) Photographer? (is that in there somewhere?)





Here are some pictures I took in the studio-- I think they're kind of fun!

New Discoveries surface to avoid being old and boring!!

1. I want to learn how to bake bread. Not bread machine bread, but the real deal! Does anyone have any good recipes?
2. Get a baby pug! I don't know why, but this has become a new obsession of mine. My idea is that, since I will be working for WATSON Wyatt, I should name it Sherlock. But I kind of want a girl pug. I don't know, but they are just so cute and precious!
3. A more immediate goal: play Pixar Monopoly!! Trey and I went on our 2 year anniversary dinner date on May 13th, and he got me the game (and a beautiful necklace), and I am very excited to play it-- pieces are Mr. Incredible, Nemo, Sulley, Remy, Buzz Lightyear, and Lightning McQueen. It's been a busy week, though, so that will be next week...
4. Participate in a relay triathlon where my leg of the race is in 69 degree water. Ha! Silly me-- I get to do that on Sunday! Go Team Britt-Phil-Trey!

Ok, time for capstone now.

I love Life

The crunchy outside, the sugary crystals on the inside-- I just don't know what could be better when dinner is Prin meatloaf. No offense, Mom, I like yours despite years of saying that I didn't.

The last quarter of my life is now officially over halfway done, but I'll have to wait to see about this whole graduating thing. So far, my capstone is giving me a lot more trouble than I was thinking it would, but we don't have to talk about that. I'm a little bitter right now.

However, the big news in my life for the week: playing in a golf tournament! Yes, you read it right, a GOLF tournament. Watch out Tiger, Bogott's clawing her way to the top. The Principia Parents' Association hosted a golf scramble last weekend, and the Duttons were down a member, so they got 2 for the price of 1! Trey and I joined the team, and even though it was freezing cold, super windy, and both of our first times out a course, golfing may just become my weekend getaway from actuarial valuations! Don't worry, Courtney, I'll still go rollerblading with you too...and bike riding...and swimming...and marathon training.

But to think that all of this weekend excitement occurred because of a trip to the DMV, now that is the crazy part. Trey's license expired, so we went down to the DOR, but they said he needed his birth certificate, so we went to his house to that, then back to another DMV for a 2 minute test, then to a SHOE STORE (yes, I did actually, successfully get Richard Allen Dutton III, man who has strong moral opposition to the art of wearing shoes, into a shoe store where he actually found my very cute pair of red shoes for graduation and semi-approved my purchase of a mostly comfortable pair of silver shoes for my bridesmaid dress), then to Party City for shower decorations, and then he helped me fix my sunroof! After that, we went to Casa Gallardo (oh so amazingly tasty Mexican restaurant) for dinner, back to Prin for Recycled Percussion (Dad, you would have LOVED it), pub time with Tommy and Samantha, back to the Dutton's, and finally we're back at the golf tournament. So, if anyone's not looking forward to a trip to the DMV, I say that you just never know what could happen.

Sorry for the severe lack of updates lately folks, but this Personal Journaling class has been draining on my creative juices. After writing about collections and soundtracks and moments and ordinary things and all that jazz, it's my blog that suffers. It's a shame, and I'm not proud to admit it, but it's true.

And how could I forget...

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!
You're not old or boring, and you don't even have a blog!
I love you!

It's Finally Warm and Beautiful!

Today was so wonderful with 70ish degree weather! So, as a tribute to spring, here are the things I love about it:
1) Popsicles
2) Frisbee
3) Skirts
4) Sun
5) Tomato Sprouts (mine made the Principia Pilot this week!)
6) Going outside without a jacket
7) Eating outside
8) Dirty feet (ok, a little weird, I know...but it shows that you've been playing hard!)
9) Barbeques
10) Flowers

On news of my life, things are getting more solidified for summer and after plans. I'm heading back to camp for the first two sessions as a photographer! I am so excited! I'll get to go to lots of activities and follow campers around, being creative with my camera, and nothing could be better than that! I was hoping to do some traveling this summer, but that just didn't work out, so this will be a great way to spend part of the summer after graduation. And now I get to spend more time with Trey since he'll be at camp too! Once 2nd session is done, it will be time for Samantha and Tommy's wedding in Longview, so we'll head down there for all those wedding festivities! Then, it's back to Memphis to go through an attic full of stuff for an apartment... someday. Courtney and Phil actually want me back as their indentured servant, I mean fun an crazy sister/sister-in-law, so it's back to Grand Prairie for me! It's going to work out really well, and Courtney even wants me to get a pug puppy. Hmmm, we'll see... It would be fun :) Courtney, I sure hope Phil knows you said this to me! And then who knows? I'll be in the business of risk! Livin' life on the edge, right? I think that's what an actuary does, at least...

8 feet of pink butcher paper and 7 Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers

What do ya get when you add these together? A list of MUST-DO's before the end of senior year! In the open space above our gigantic bed, Marcia, Laura, and I hung our masterpiece. A disclaimer says that anyone who adds to the list has to intend to do it before the end of the quarter. It's our very own bucket list (except no one's kicking the bucket)!! We also discovered that jumping on our big bed is really fun but kind of scary since the ceiling is so close!

And on a totally different note, I am currently taking a personal journaling class. One assignment we had was writing about spring break without using any adjectives or adverbs. I learned two things from this assignment-- 1) It's surprising how many college students do not know what an adjective or adverb is and 2) Writing without them is NOT fun! So, before you climb into your warm, heavenly divine, inviting bed tonight, thank your adjectives and adverbs. They add spice to life.

Red Hot Chili Peppers in the Big Truck

For all you avid viewers of B-ritt's blog who've been disappointed by the lack of updates in the last few weeks, I'd like to begin by offering my apologies, but even a beginning blogger sometimes needs a break from the rigorous demands of her fans, so off to sunny Florida I went! Trey's family has a timeshare down in Pompano Beach (note the incredible view...), so after finals were done, Trey, Luisa, and I packed the Big Truck (a real trooper, as you'll learn later on) rather haphazardly, spent the night in Memphis, and headed to warmer weather early Sunday morning.

After dropping Luisa off at home in West Palm Beach and almost having a gas crisis in the middle of a city, Trey and I made it to the condo at about 1 AM after Trey had driven some 16 hours-- but 16 hours goes faster with Catch Phrase and jelly beans. The next morning, even though it was really windy, the Duttons and I made it out to the beach, and I got to experience the making of a sand castle with a couple of intense shovels and sand castle makers. We found a some cool copopods (I have no idea if that's the right way to spell it) and made them a little room on the top of the castle, shaded from the sun and any hungry birds and then sat in hand-dug pits while we read and watched the tide take away the castle we had just built.

Tuesday it was so windy that the beach would have permanently imbedded sand in us, so we went to Parrot Jungle Island in Miami instead! It was so cool-- it's like a zoo mainly devoted to parrots, lions, tigers, and some reptiles. We got into a little trouble right at first when we tried to take our own pictures with the parrots, but what's the fun in an adventure if you don't try to bend the rules a little, right? And did you know that a Liger is an actual animal, weighing in at a whopping 900 lbs?! There's also some animal there that smells like hot buttered popcorn but it's name sounded like plkch shatabrt, so just know if you're in the jungle and smell popcorn, it's probably not Orville Redenbacher there to join you for a leisurely stroll...

We spent the last part of our time there feeding a whole line of parrots, one of whom (Sky) was really eager to get off his perch and sit on Trey and his dad. They would just hold out their arms to feed him, and he'd climb right on. Another bird waved one wing around like he had a secret to tell you, and my favorite seemed to have some kind of problem that made him look like he couldn't stop dancing.





A few more days lounging around the pool and reading books got us all ready for another adventure on Friday. Our original plan was to have me take a resort course in SCUBA diving and then go on 2 dives with Trey, Ashely, and Rick, but apparently the conditions would have been like combat diving, and even though the veterans were up for it, no one thought it'd be a good idea for my first dive. I ended up doing the course on Friday, and it was so fun!! The Duttons all went kayaking while I did the class, and by the time they got back for a photo shoot, I was hooked--even in murky water. At one point, the instructor (Connor, who has a pirate house), came back to us from grabbing some weights from a couple yards away and said, "There's a 6 foot bull shark hanging out right over their by the dock!" I was pretty much a 50/50 mixture of curiosity and terror until I looked up and saw Trey laughing. Don't worry mom-- no sharks...yet.
Then it was down to Key West to walk around, see the southernmost point in the US (only 90 miles from Cuba, but unfortunately the marker isn't quite the southernmost point but it was pretty dang close), refueling with yummy seafood lunch and ice cream right next to the beautiful ocean and lots of sailboats, and then it was time to head back.



Rick and Debbie left on Saturday afternoon because they had to get back to work, so on Easter Sunday the three "orphans" sadly had to become stowaways on a dive boat where they had to put their underwater skills to the test in order to survive! With only a wetsuit, regulator, fins, mask, and enough air to last at least 45 minutes, it was tough work to accomplish! On an entirely serious note, SCUBA diving is pretty much the coolest, most incredible thing I've ever done. It was awesome to be at the surface of the water, look down and see the water, coral, and sand below absolutely teeming with so much life. Fish are swimming everywhere, and the whole time I was down there, I felt like I was in a dream. The dive instructor kept motioning for us to take pictures in different places, and he would always tell Trey and I to hold hands for the pictures (he warned Trey before hand that if he started spinning me around that he wasn't getting fresh but probably just fixing something on my gear). We got to see so many fish-- a HUGE trumpet fish (between 2 and 3 feet long), a scrawled cowfish, trunkfish, lobsters (which were pointed at with a "mmm yummy" signal), grouper, parrotfish (maybe my favorite), butterfly fish, barracuda, and so many others I couldn't possibly name them all! And we were in the water with a shark!!! I think Ashley was the only one of us to see it, but Trey and I both saw the instructor giving the shark sign and pointing. A word or two about tan lines: wearing Keens and being outside as much as a SCUBA instructor makes your feet look like tigers-- my instructor, David, was evidence of this! After two long dives (45 minutes on the bottom that went by really fast), we got to warm up on the boat on the way back in, and then went back to Pompano to meet our friends at the condo. Before starting the next part of the blog, I would like to say to anyone who is reading this and hasn't gone SCUBA diving-- do it! It's so amazing to actually see an ecosystem working like that, and it's unlike anything I could ever imagine seeing on land.

And I can't take credit for all these pictures-- Trey and Ashley took them all!

When we got back to the condo, Laura, Peter, and Karen had been waiting for a little while for us to get back, running in the rain on the beach and getting completely soaked but apparently having a good time! Samantha came in a little while later, and since it was Easter, what else was there but an Easter egg hunt!! Trey and I hid them all over the apartment, filled with candy and other random items like cookie dough, cheese, and pretzels. After giving hints like "I hear wheat thins you out" for the one in the Wheat Thins box, all the eggs were discovered, and Easter was complete! On Monday, Laura, Samantha, Karen, and Peter went to Naples to see Laura's family, and Trey and I met them for dinner after we dropped Ashely off at the airport. And let me tell you, good company, alligators, and oldies music makes a 3 hour drive go by really fast!

The next few days were a great way to end Spring Break-- we lounged on the beach, took walks, read, and made dinner on the grill (mostly)! The first night of cooking out was great! We had super burgers, and Trey and Peter constructed a hut to block the wind from the grill, and the burgers tasted great, along with out mac and cheese. The second night, Karen and I ran out to grab some more things for cooking, but ended up taking too long, so the charcoal had died, so we had somewhat grilled, somewhat baked chicken for dinner that night. Lesson learned-- grilled chicken is deee-licious, so don't run out of heat too soon!

On the last day, Trey and I went up to have lunch at Luisa's mom's restaurant in West Palm Beach. It's called Mono's, and it's a Colombian restaurant. Trey told Luisa just to pick out her favorites, and we both had absolutely amazing lunches--empanadas, chicken with cream sauce, steak, rice, fried plantains (2 ways), beans, and arepas (like thick corn tortillas) with fresh cheese. By the end, we were absolutely stuffed!! Luisa and her mom showed us around the back where they make the arepas, and then we took a picture and headed back to Pompano for a few more hours at the beach!

Friday morning was another early, but we all hit the road headed for Memphis. We had a competition between the cars to see who could get the most number of license plates/states on the way home, and even though Karen, Laura, and Samantha beat our car with states, we had a whopping 72 with all those crazy Florida plates!! And we even saw an Alaska...amazing. We also played catch phrase for about 4 hours and contemplated life as the "billboard lady." Tuuupelo was a great source of entertainment for our valiant driver, Trey Dutton, sole driver of the big truck.

Memphis was also an adventure! After Karen, Samantha, and Luisa headed off to school on Saturday, Laura, Peter, Trey, and I went to Range USA with my parents to participate in the southern sport of shooting. Mom and Dad gave us some safety lessons, and then it was all about the targets...which are now hanging up at Prin! Needless to say, we had a really good time, and my parents were pleasantly surprised! Dinner was so good y'ull slap yo mama at the Commissary, where Austin branded our foreheads with Cars stickers and my new baby niece Chloe (who has my birthday!!) couldn't keep her eyes off Trey! Back at home we played with Austin, hiding Hopper on the fan, in vases, and finally ending with a brilliant game of "Bob the Weasel"--Hopper style. Austin was running around the room sneaking candy as Hopper whizzed past his head multiple times until he finally saw him due to a catching mishap on the adults' parts...come on guys, get it together and win with some dignity!


Even though our trip back to school to start the last quarter at Prin was mostly uneventful--except the stimulating Physics and Chemistry conversations flying between Peter and Laura in the back seat, we didn't make it home without one last big blowout of an adventure! 43.8 miles away from Trey's house, we heard a huge pop, and Trey pulled off to the side of the road (I think all our hearts were beating pretty fast at this point), only to find that Laura had eaten a few too many jellybeans! The tire was just flat, it was exploded! Luckily, the Duttons came to our rescue because it was pouring rain outside, and the spare was under all our our luggage. When I called my dad to tell him we weren't going to get to school right on time, he said, "The back left tire, right? Yeah, I heard it squeaking this morning in the garage, and I knew it was going to happen. I should have said something, but I didn't." Thanks, Dad... just kidding, but he did know. So, for all you car owners out there, a squeaky tire is what "Car Talk" would say has delaminated, a fancy car term for, "you're basically going to explode your tire in the next few hundred miles, so go slow or change your tires." So, after some more car Catch Phrase and an ice cream break at the Dutton's, we finally got back to Prin!

And now life consists of Natural Resources Conservation, Intermediate Photography, and Personal Journaling. Life is hard when you're a senior... Thanks to everybody for an amazing last Spring Break!