Naomi the Great

When you are young and unstoppable......

2006-06-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

Things have been cruising in overdrive. I like it for now, because I know that I am going to be in Africa in less then a week. It's like the storm before the calm. It's all worth it.

So--Friday night we all went out to Seven to celebrate my roomie's 27th birthday. Noah was not there bartending, so I actually had to pay for my own drink. Unbelievable--9 bucks. For one drink. What is the world coming too when you have to lay down a week's pay just to get into an establishment and then have a good time? (That sounds like I am advocating drunken dancing, but I am really just on a rampage against FLEECING of the young and money-less.) Before we went out dancing we had cake and ice cream at our bachorlette pad, and I got to decorate with streamers and balloons. I hate blowing up balloons. It hurts my cheeks. But I do anything for Annie. (Annie are you reading this? Better be.)

I love dancing with friends. Nothing better. Most of us have known each other for 5, 6, 12, ? years. Brothers, cousins, boyfriends, best friends, yada yada. Just give up completely on looking good and move the tush. I had a stalker (Old guy, too, what was he thinking?) that kept trying to dance with me and Jen would step in front and dance with dangerous flailing ninja arms. Thanks Jen. I also owe a thanks to both Jake, Jim and Darren for being "alpha males". Way to get out on the floor and dance it up. Jim, keep blowing your whistle.

Next day....about 4 hours later, I guess.....I had an 11 hour work day. Whatever. Hey, when your young and cr--aaaaaaa---zy........you get really cranky after a night of no quality sleep.

One great reason to never get a cat

2006-05-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

So I am still house-sitting. They have two cats--and old cat named Milo that sleeps with the wiener dog, and a giant cat named Gyro that is basically the size of an ocelot. They both use the cat litter box. I have no idea why. They have a dog door that they can use at any time. But anyway, I have to empty out this cat litter box, and I wait as long as I can, so it is mostly crap and very little litter left.......I was pulling out the cat litter box liner and carrying it across the kitchen to put out the back door (trying not to dry heave) when the "sturdy" bag broke right over the dog's back. Cat excrement went all over Annie and all over the kitcken floor. Annie dog looked at me as if to say, "Why would you do that? Why?" I had to run back to get the broom (crunch, crunch, crunch) and then run over to the door and shove Annie out (crunch, crunch, crunch) and then stop the wiener dog from eating.....whatever that cat litter chemical is. And that was at least half an hour out of my day. Cats should be outside, hunting outside, peeing outside, and making little delicate holes and pooing outside. Cat litter boxes are a horrible, horrible idea.

Africa Plans

2006-04-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

It's true. I am going to Africa the middle of June. South Africa: Kruger National Park, Sedwana Bay, Cape Town, and Johannasburg. I am just going on vacation. I wish that some day I could go there to study marine biology, or even a little bit of zoology. I promise to try and post some pictures on the web after I go. I don't have a digital camera, but my Dad does have a scanner, so we will see.

On the topic of the rotting fish corpse breath of the wiener dog--I talked to someone else with a wiener dog and she said that her dogs breath is equally bad, so I think that it just runs with the dog breed. I don't think that it comes from licking her rear--I think that she physically can't do that anyway. I don't think that wiener dogs are that bend-y. But thanks for that suggestion anyway, AJ.

I have had a cold for months now, it seems, I just can't shake it. I think that I keep reinfecting myself, or maybe it's from the constant work outside in the rain, or maybe both. Tomorrow is the first day that I don't have to get up early in a long time, so I plan on taking NyQuil and going into a cold-medicine induced hallucinigenic state.

Housitting the dogs

2006-04-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

So my house sitting job was fun. It was raining the entire time, sometimes a serious downpour and the satellite TV was (sob!) messed up. I was right in the middle of watching "Growing Up Walrus" on Animal Planet when the entire thing pooped out and went all fuzzy. Drat! What else can you do in the rain? I wasn't about to go jogging, that's for sure. I'm not that dedicated to my physical fitness. I couldn't snuggle with the dogs because the wiener-dog had rotting fish corpse breath, and the other black mutt would never sit still, she would just wiggle wiggle wiggle the entire time. The dogs decided that since it was raining they were going to do all the peeing inside, which is obviously a much better choice then outside.

The house sitting job was really fun, though. They had a great house and it is really nice to have extra money so that I can save up for my Africa trip. I was starting to wonder where I would get all the money.

What am I doing inside anyway? It's sunny, I am going to go tan/burn.

Oh, and one more thing

2006-03-27T21:11:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to show you all what Santa Barbara was like when I was there. Beautiful! I actually got school credit for that. About four of us would get on the boat and we would sail in and out of the marina. We actually started bringing a radio and snacks toward the end. Our instructor was "Captain Jim" and he could really care less as long as we didn't sail the boat into the sand bar or the pier or a sea lion.

I would also like to comment on my tan-ness. I miss it.

We did actually hit the sand bar, now that I think about it. I was standing up right about there and holding onto the backstay. Somebody was dredging out the marina and they had moved the booeys (how do you spell booeys?). Right about when Evan was saying, "Hey, where are the booeys?" our keel board hit the sand bar and the boat went from moving to not-moving-at-all immediately. I went from standing in the back of the boat to flying over Evan and Ben and somehow shooting into a small hole in the font of the boat that led down into the hull. It almost looked as if I meant to do that, because I didn't hit anything or anybody along the way, and I was flying through the air for a good six feet at least. Everyone on the Pier saw me do it, that's for sure. I remember Evan looking down at me and saying "What are you doing?" I guess he didn't see the flight, just the ending crash. Evan thought that I had jumped into the hole head first on purpose.

"Captain Jim" had to come and help tow us out. He zoomed over in a rickey tickey metal outboard motor and screamed over his megaphone, "Take down your sail-ull." But first he made us try and rock it out for about 15 minutes with the entire pier watching. Really, truly a great experience.

Internet Silence

2006-03-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

Sure, there is lots of family over here in my town. They are mostly on my Mom's side. GrampsHarder is over here, but I think that you knew that? Most of my college buddies are spread over the West Coast, but not a whole lot are close to me. We mostly keep in contact through email--I can't stand the phone for one reason or another.

I want to warn everyone that there might be internet silence on my part for awhile. I am house-sitting for two weeks and it might take me some time to crack into their internet. That sounded shady. It wasn't supposed to be.

My housemate is walking around and spraying FreBreeze over the whole house. It smells like something died under our living room. We are almost positive that the smell is coming from our Daisy the dog. She has an over-active butthole right now and is rootin tootin the house up. We can't open any windows because it has been raining for weeks and weeks. The firemen across the street haven't been busy with any actual fires for quite a while.

I have to get going and start packing.

I got it

2006-03-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

So I did go to the family blog spot and figure it out, thanks. Ice Age, what's up! I haven't seen you since Dave's wedding....which makes sense, I don't know when else I would see you. But I know nothing about what you are doing. Are you in school? Do you live in Carson City? I have always been a little jealous that you and Dave could be cousins and live so close, it would have been sweet to grow up close to you guys, considering that we are all the same age. But, I grew up with the Beer side of the family over here in SR. Yes, Beer is my mother's maiden name. And it is pronounced beer....not bear, or burr. Beer. It is awesome to grow up with family close, isn't it!

I just want you all to know that I trained our house dog to speak on command. Not only does she bark, but, if you say "What does a Wookie say?" she will (sometimes) growl and roo-roo like Chewbacca. It's our new cool party trick. Brings the guys a-runnin'.

Who are all you PEOPLE?

2006-03-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Allright, now look.

I love all these comments about the swan, and welcome to blogging, yada yada, but I still have no idea who all of you are. I went to your sites and all I saw was animated pictures. In case you were wondering, that doesn't help me at all. Is that you Jon? Is that you Brandon? David? Uncle Bob? I almost feel like I am conversing with the phantom of the opera.

Anyway--I have a question for you males. It is a semi-serious one. Do you feel that a major part of your identity is found in how well you provide for your wife? For those of you who are not married, just make it up. (Just kidding).

On to another thing---yes, Mr. Mysterious Blogger, I do read people's emails and hear their voices in my head. SPOOKY. How they do that, we will never know. And Mr. OTHER Mysterious Blogger--someone once gave me really good advise as I was travelling through New Zealand. It don't know if it will help you at all, but here it is, paraphrased.

Your faith is not to be viewed as a fenced in area, where you are either outside of the fence or in it. (Meaning, a super-star Christian is in the fence, and a Christian struggling with his faith is now outside the fence.) Rather, it is to be viewed as a well. Sometimes God wants us right next to the well, being fed constantly from it. Sometimes God wants us to be far away from the well in the desert. We don't know why, and we don't like it. But just because we are struggling with ourselves or with our faith does not mean that we are suddenly kicked over the fence. It just means that we are farther away from the well....but we are STILL CONNECTED TO IT.

I liked that because I was, and still am, struggling with exactly what I believe in. For some reason, when a person is struggling, a lot of Christians act like that person is suddenly tainted or something and they push them even farther away. I sometimes feel that just because I have questions, I am a "bad Christian". That never feels nice. I have come to terms with the fact that maybe I am meant to be in the desert for awhile. For whatever reason, it seems that God wants me out here. I don't like it--but there doesn't seem to be much that I can do about it. Maybe it is the same for you. I helps me to realize that I am still connected to the well, I am just a little farther away then I used to be. Maybe it will help you too?

Does any of that make sense?

I have been on a writing flurry tonight. If my sentence structure is off or my grammer is bad I really DONT CARE. I have to go to bed, because I have a long day of doing nothing tomorrow and I need to get sleep for that. Captain's log, signing out.

"Oh, there you are Peter"

2006-03-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone--
Good to finally hear from you. Yes, it is true, the Harder side of the family is stepping up and joining the rest of the internet ants in the blogging world. Just to warn everyone, though, my blogs are going to be a bit random.
I got bit a lot yesterday, by almost all of the lemurs. It was crazy. I started to take it personally (which you should never do, because it is just a lemur after all.) Lemur bites always leave funky scars because lemurs have all sorts of strange bacteria in thier mouth--and here is the clincher......they are a primate, and you are a primate, so all the bacteria passes directly to you. You can give them the flu and they can give you the cold. Yada yada. I also got bit by a swan. I used to like swans. No more.
Work is slow. It's winter, there is nothing to do. Tourism is almost nill. My bank account is evaporating like spit on the fireplace. I got a call this morning at 9:30 that my tour was cancelled tomorrow, which brings me to only 23 hours of work this week. Hooray. The girl that called me to tell me (that my life sucks) that the tour was cancelled was so cheerful about it. Bravo, you get to sleep in! It's hard to sleep when you are living on the street.
I picked up a few more hobbies. I have a harmonica, a guitar, and a cahon drum. If only I had more appendages. I could be my own band.

The animal kingdom

2006-02-14T17:30:00.000-08:00

I actually got to snuggle with one of my more aggressive lemurs today. "Radar." Apparently, raisen snacks will get you anywhere. I also got my pound box of See's candy from my Dad today--good ole Dad. Always coming through on Valentine's Day!

Thanks Dad

2006-02-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

So my Dad just spent a good hour putting that pumpkin picture up. By the way, I made that costume with felt, duct tape, a whole lot of orange and green thread, and garden drip line. It was like Sputnik, "spherical, but quite pointy at parts."

So simple it's unbelievable

2006-02-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

So this is my first official blog. I have no idea what I just did. Hopefully, this doesn't cost anything because I have, somewhere around, ninety dollars in my sad little bank account. That is a testament to how useful a college BS degree is.