The counterpart....

And here they are, finally finished.  I hope they go over well for the cute little boy on the orange chair (pictured in the previous post).  I have discovered that it is harder to blog when you don't do it every day----same with going to the gym, although I have to admit that right now I am blogging to delay going to the gym.  In other, non-plushed news, I am going to start working full-time on Monday at my day job.  All the economy craziness started making me nervous, plus I really do adore my job.  I work at a day program for adults with developmental disabilities---so my days involve lots of hugs, high-fives, sign language, coloring, Candy Land and bingo.  I love it, so I don't mind moving up to full-time, I am just a little nervous about the time that will be squeezed out of Pink Cheeks.  However, I think I am better at time-management when I am a bit busier which is strange, but I've heard other people make the same observation.  

Are you guys on Facebook?  Has the "25 Random Things" epidemic reached you yet?  It's where you post 25 random things about yourself and then you tag people and they have to write 25 random things.  It's fun to read others and I even had a good time thinking of my own, so I'm going to share a bit of myself with you and post it here and cyber-tag all of you that read it because I would love to read about you and your inner-quirks as well:

1. I am writing my 25 random things instead of watching the Super Bowl, though I may tune in for the half-time show.

2. I have a dog named Albert who I love so much. He is such a good boy. He is obsessed with being a good boy and starts to get very nervous when he is in a gray area and unsure how to behave in the best possible way. When he is outside though, on his walks, he is not a good boy---he is a very bad boy who barks at all dogs, joggers and senior citizens.

3. Joseph and I have a "voice" for Albert. Imagining what he must be thinking and then impersonating him takes up about 50% of our days. Albert for some reason has a lisp and a Balkan accent.

4. When I was younger I played the trumpet. I used to get very nervous before solo contests which at the time seemed like very important life events (you could win ribbons and everything). My neighbor at the time was a social worker and she would do relaxation hypnotism on me before the contests.

5. The things that gross me out the most are eyeballs. I don't like that they aren't really solid and that they are just sitting there in your head protected by a thin eyelid which may or may not close in time to protect you. I am grossed out right now just writing about this.

6. Both of my parents passed away from brain tumors. This may be a bit too serious for this "Facebook 25 things" list, but it is the biggest part of my life and more than anything else, has shaped the person I am today. Watching my mom get diagnosed with cancer that took her husband's life and then suffer through it with grace and humor had a profound effect on me. I miss her every day.

7. Sometimes I forget that Joseph Holsapple (my husband) wasn't always a part of my life. I don't know how I ever lived without him. Sometimes he even sneaks into my childhood memories on accident.

8. I take my coffee black. I used to take it with cream and sugar and then one day I decided that I should have it black. I hated coffee for about a week, but now I love it and I think it is disgusting with sugar. I am really proud of myself for giving up sugar in my coffee and sometimes I enjoy making other people feel like sissies if they sweeten their coffee.

9. Trains are my preferred method of transportation.

10. One day someone in a gorilla suit came to my door and gave me enough money to pay for my wedding. It was totally awesome.

11. I love knee-high striped socks.

12. I want babies so bad right now. When I was younger I dreamed of having a family just like Bill Cosby's Jello commercials---chubby cheeks and multi-cultural.

13. I hate my "keeping in touch" skills. They are very poor. I don't like talking on the phone---it makes me completely self-conscious, but I adore my friends, which really puts me in a pickle.

14. When I was younger I loved pushing the limits of the US Postal Service. I once sent Molly Oesterle a high-top Converse sneaker by stapling the stamps directly onto it. Molly sent me bizarre things too---it was completely great.

15. I believe natural peanut butter is so much better than the other (unnatural?) peanut butter.

16. I have a ukulele that I don't know how to play. I feel guilty and lazy every time I look at it. I really wanted one after reading Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. But Stargirl I am not, just lazy Nichol.

17. I taught astronomy at summer camp. I learned that our sun is just a medium-sized star about a week before I started educating children on the cosmos. My favorite thing to tell the kids was "there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on all the earth". Is your mind blown yet?

18. My brother and sister-in-law wanted me to run a marathon this year with them. I thought I could do it until I tried running on the treadmill and realized I could only run for 1 minute before I needed to rest. Now I can run for 12 minutes! However I demoted my marathon ambitions to a 5K race.

19. I think I am really good at Foosball (Foozball?). I beat Joseph EVERY TIME we play. He could be very bad at it though, I suppose.

20. My hero is my friend, Alice Cihon, who lives in Santa Fe. I LOVE her and think she is the most amazing woman there is. I wish everyone knew her.

21. My favorite movie is Amelie. My face hurt after watching it in the theater because I was smiling so much. I love the montage in the beginning. I also loved Triplets of Belleville---the French animated film about a tour de France bicyclist who gets kidnapped by an American mob. Also, regarding movies, I make a lot of enemies when I say this, but I didn't care for Monty Python. I couldn't handle all that silliness, which is odd because I used to think I had a high tolerance for silly.

22. Every now and again I try olives to see if I aquired a taste for them yet.

23. I think about my weight too much.

24. At summer camp once some sort of animal ate up the engine of my car and built a nest inside there. I thought it was in such poor form because I'm a vegetarian, so I thought that animal was not really following karmic law.

25. #25 has pressure to be very important because it is the last one! I'll just use it to say thank you for reading, and I can't wait to read yours. Love, Nichol