A few random things since I haven't gotten it together yet to write a regular post:

1. I WILL write more about the Price is Right experience. I promise. Maybe next week (May 16th!) when the show airs. There is lots to say about it, but I must discuss the deets with Molly to make sure I get it right, especially the part about the Price is Right briefing we attended at the hotel Sunday night. Yeah. There is such a thing as a Price is Right briefing, and, well, it was as humorous as it sounds. My memory of the whole ordeal is a bit fuzzy now since I was either exhausted and punchy after almost no sleep for two days, frightened by altercations happening on the streets of L.A. at 2am, appalled and amused by how freakin seriously people take getting on the PiR, or buzzed after a few glasses of celebratory Veuve and cocktails post-show. :)

2. Amy, Keith, and I got to finish our road trip almost one year after the fact! Last June, our plan was to stop at Magic Mountain in CA on our way back up to Seattle, and then the Vanagon broke down in Sedona. We were stuck, and although we had that awesome day in Jerome, we were still bummed that we had to axe Magic Mountain to get home in time. So, they arranged to take a trip down to Disneyland last week too, and I met up with them for a couple of days after the PiR. We spent a really fun day at Six Flags. We now have road trip "closure."

3. After lots more listening, I'm so in to the Jarvis Cocker cd and am obsessed with the song Black Magic. You should give it a listen.

4. This is a bit in mush mode, but thanks to my darling mother for the beautiful flowers that arrived for me at work today. Such a great surprise, and the very sweet card made me a little weepy. It's lovely to be told that you are loved more than life itself and then some. My mom rocks.

5. I've been busy since returning home, and I still owe people return phone calls and emails. It's sad, really, that I'm so behind. I've been working on an email response to one of my friends for about a week now. There it sits in my drafts folder. I open it up often and get a few pathetic sentences written before I'm inevitably interrupted. I have a few weeks worth of news to report to her. At this rate, she'll get the email in June. This reminds me that I still need to send my friend, Chris, her bday (Oct) and Christmas gift, which will also most likely make it out in June as well. Siiiiiiigh.

6. Learning French is fun! Admittedly I haven't gotten very far yet (see above), but I like the program I'm trying, and I'm especially motivated right now since Lindsay and I are talking about the possibility of going to Paris in August. I hope we can make that work.

7. Congratulations to Sydney and Chris on the arrival of their very beautiful little daughter, Ada!

8. A friend of mine promised to send me a poem, and what he sent was Jean Valentine's Once. I think I love it.

Once
Once there was a woodcutter,
when he asked me to marry him
the woman in the grocery store said
You look like you lost your last friend.
First love!
When we broke up
it was as if the last egg in the house
got dropped on the broken floor.
This world is everywhere! The woman said,
You won’t go unsampled!

9. There has been a bit of post-PiR drama with the family. Long story semi-short, my mom reported Molly's winning to a couple of newspapers in our hometowns. Molly didn't want that, and distinctly remembers expressing that to our mom while in CA. But, mom claims to have no memory of that chat, so naturally disagreement ensues. They had a discussion about it by phone Tuesday night, at the end of which Molly exclaimed huffily, "I'm calling Megan R!" She thinks I'm threatening enough to do something about it. Molly calls Megan R. to beseech her to telephone mother to back her up on no press release request, even though the deed had already been done. The Sno Valley Record had even followed up with mom to find out the air date of the show. Molly strongly believes, for many reasons, that it's not necessary for her high school peers remaining in hometown to be alerted of her PiR experience. We laugh (her in mortification) over imagined headlines, "Local Cheerleader Makes Good On Price is Right!" I say I will call mom later, secretly enjoying sister's predicament just a tiny bit. (Hey man, we all have our humiliating moments. I'm just glad it's her time, not mine.) On way to work Wednesday morning, I get a telephone call from mom chastising me for taking Molly's side. Later Wednesday morning, Molly reports that she has sent email to mother informing her their relationship is on the fritz over newspaper business. Mom responds to email miffed over conflict when she is just proud of daughter. After a stony stretch of silence and another heated telephone argument, Molly writes in to newspaper, via web form, to request no announcement. On the form you are asked to categorize your request. She chose Complaint or Problem. I guess Problem = Mother. This is hi-larious to me. My family cracks me up!

Stay tuned.