Good time spent at home.

Let's see. How to wrap up the past few weeks.

Last weekend, I went to my parents' house for the day for a BBQ (and to visit with my relatives that are in town). It was the same relatives I saw at the baseball game earlier in the week, but since we were home it was a much more personal setting to get reacquainted with the cousins I haven't seen in years.

Alexa, Madelyn, Abby, Rainy, Sawyer and Ruby are all so adorable. I have gotten to spend time with Alexa and Madelyn a few times before, so they remembered me (though they were shy and it took a little while for them to warm up to me again). The younger ones didn't really remember me at all, so it was a bit of a struggle for the first few hours.

But eventually, as children generally do - they warmed up to me. I can't even begin to explain how good it felt to be playing some strange version of softball in the front yard on a team with my 6 and 8 year old cousins. How happy it made me when they fought for who got to sit on my lap in the pictures my mom insisted we take for Grandma. How delighted it makes me when 3 different girls are vying for my attention to tell me stories that all begin with, "Hey Tina, so one time…!" I adore my little cousins and it's one of the biggest saddnesses in my life that I don't get to be an active part of their lives because we just live so dang far away from each other.

So in short, the BBQ was lovely. I adore having a large family, and cheesy as it sounds, I cherish any moment I get with any of them (as it's so few and far between as I get older).

Later that weekend, I went to two parties. Forest just moved into this crazy mansion with a bunch of other Seattle artists, and Saturday night they threw a party to celebrate a few house member's birthdays. For the most part, the party was a total blast (despite most of the people there being at least 10 years older than my friends and I, but no matter!) We ate food, we played a giant Jenga the drinking game (meaning the Jenga blocks were actually giant, not just that the game had a lot of people playing it), and we went on numerous tours of the vastly impressive house. Everyone was dressed formally and looked lovely, and I have to say I am looking forward to more parties at the mansion. The view is incredible. They live right on the waterfront, and off in the distance you can see the mountains across the way. Breathtaking.

That night I went home happy and with my shoes in my hand. The sign of a great party, for sure.

The next day was Forest's birthday, and our gift to him was to come over and help him clean out the garage at the mansion to turn it into a green screen studio. Not exactly the same type of party as the evening prior, but still a work party nonetheless. I spent most of the afternoon organizing an array of weird crap, from boxes of CDs and old unopened mail to life sized paper maché unicorns to kid-sized bikes with tires so flat you couldn't even ride it without falling on your face. For as boring as cleaning generally is, I actually had a great time hanging out and organizing stuff with my friends. The weather was beautiful and we all finished the task with a sense of accomplishment. Not to mention when we were done we got to go upstairs to the entertainment room and play hours of Xbox Kinect and eat pizza.

The week following my exciting weekend involved a lot of errands-running and room cleaning while preparing for the roadtrip to LA I'm about to take with Ariana down to LA. I did get a chance to see "Bridesmaids" in theaters, which was relatively funny - and on Wednesday I got a haircut. But not one that anyone else would notice.

Thursday I got up and heading out for a recording session. The local nerd band "Kirby Krackle" asked me to sing on one of the new tracks for their upcoming album, which I was more than happy to help them out with. Being busy and generally putting things off, I didn't actually listen to the track until the morning of recording, which proved to be rather funny. The song is a parody of 50 Cent's "Candy Shop", and in the new version, I play the sultry woman hanging out in a comic shop. I was totally not prepared to head to their home studio and ad lib things like "ooh boy" and "mmmmmm", but it proved to be a hilarious afternoon and I can't wait to hear the final product.

The final thing on my list of exciting events of the past few weeks happened yesterday: Nick graduated from high school. For some reason I forgot that they'd be in the same stadium, hearing from the same faculty, wearing the same robes, making the same life step. I actually surprised myself at how choked up I got, realizing it's been FIVE YEARS since I sat in those very bleachers with my bedazzled cap and dorky gown, linking arms with my friends and making promises to stay in touch as we walked into the next stages of our lives. Time really flies, guys. It goes by so fast.

My brother looked incredibly handsome in his graduation gown, and I stood up and cheered like a maniac when they called his name. It was my last chance to embarrass him in front of his school friends (one of my favorite pastimes) so I really had to make it count.

I'm so proud of my little brother. High school didn't come quite as easily to him as it did to me, so I know it was a very, very happy day for him. Plus, afterwards we got to stuff ourselves at the Spaghetti Factory and have a bonfire at home, and that's always a great end to a wonderful day. So things are good. :)


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