why can't i speak whenever i talk about you?

more like, why can't i speak?
the last two days i've been rendered worse than marge's sisters...i think all the working, and, admittedly, a couple of late nights have finally taken a toll. yesterday morning i woke up and i could just feel it. you know the feeling.. it's what i've taken to calling yuck-throat. itchy, goopy, sore. initially, i was scared i was getting tonsillitis again---i had it three times last year--but it seems to just be some weird virus going around. my sister, (who's a nurse for those of you that don't know susie) told me people have been getting it. so anyway, it progressed to now, which is half my throat swollen, my ear hurting, but not much else for symptoms. i was kinda cold today and it was like a jungle outside but i don't think i'm feverish.
my momma told me there'd be days like this.
hopefully i'll be better by this weekend so i might be able to enjoy some time off.
william was gone this weekend, and now it's his turn to work late--last night he didn't get home til 11:30, tonight he's still gone at 10 p.m. we've just had no time lately to do anything for the wedding. next up: save-the-dates, catering details. i'll keep ya posted.
oh, susie ordered her dress for the wedding. it's from j crew and she got it on super sale (must be something about us sisters). originally $250, now nearly under $100 with shipping--not bad! it's "bright sherbet" and has a tank-style top, a-line silhouette, to the knee. it's pretty plain in styling, very tailored, not too dressy but not too casual--and hot pink! can't go wrong. it's really pretty and i think will be perfect for her.
also, could i be more addicted to TLC? the cable channel that is. i love all these shows....it's ridiculous. miami ink, what not to wear, that show about the sextuplets/twins family....i'm a junkie.i wish i got the channel with the wedding stuff on it.
all right. i must turn in for the night. sorry for the lack of good posts lately. i'm so tired and now sick...
more oj, then nighty-night.

i'm still standin'

hi there. here i am. i'm still real tired. i slept yesterday from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., hten didn't move off the couch all day, then went to bed at 9 am. and still felt cheated on sleep. i really hope i get my half day tomorrow, i have a feeling that i will still be tired tomorrow. its' already almost 10 and i should be in bed already since i have had no sleep. one more week of craziness (although nothing as crazy as this week), and then i'll be done.
my summer is going waaaaay too fast. which makes me a little sad in my heart.
ok. must go to bed. real tired. sleeeeep.

a long day

i went to work tuesday morning like any other day. only i worked until 6 am this morning.
yeah.
that's the longest i've ever worked. i am pretty much useless at this point. william has also been working long hours.
this is a lot of effort to type, so i think i'm gonna sign off. hopefully more updates later this week.

breathe in, breathe out, breathe in...

sorry for the lack of posting around these here parts. i have been under enormous pressure at work and working late hours.
not many developements on the wedding-planning front, but we did celebrate william's grandfather's 90th birthday this weekend in south dakota. he is one of the cutest men alive. and with the sharpest memory ever. he weas a farmer up until just a few years ago, it seems, and he showed me photos from his earliest days--literally--to his anniversaries to his birthdays, complete with details. but possibly one of the most important things i took from the weekend was another happy, long marriage. these two are so cute. they still hold hands and talk sweet to each other. betty, the grandma, wrote him a sweet little essay about how she still thinks of him as 28 years old, that a wink from him made her day, all the sacrifices he made for her and how few she felt she made for him. they told funny stories of raising nine children on a farm--and throughout all the stories--how much laughter and joy they found. betty has sixty-two years of calendars set aside--each day she wrote what the weather was like, how many fish they caught, or some other fact of the day. all that history. i could listen to them talk for hours.
we also celebrated the impending birth of a new baby in october, with william's sister's baby shower. it was a surprise, and it was pretty clear she had no idea that it was coming. so that was fun. the next day, she asked william and i to be the godparents for the baby. how sweet. we are honored, of course. we can't wait for him to show up! yes, it's a boy.
with that, i must run. lots to do. just wanted to check in.

this will be the day where you will hear me say that i will never run away

this should have more accurately been the title of my anniversary story but instead it's my prince review, which i'll keep short. playing three shows in three consecutive blocks on 07/07/07--with one being appropriately shut down by the cops (if de-elevator tries to break you down, go crazy!) at 4 a.m.
the man is 49, and he can rock harder than i can.
can i say that i fall in love with prince more every time i see him? the man is a genius. he's an amazing performer (check those moves), an amazing musician (he played guitar, bass, and piano on saturday night)--my thought is always: does he sit down and write a song.. and think to himself "awwww yeah. 10 million records, right there!" like, who writes raspberry beret? what a perfect pop song.
i think the best part was that he really seriously seemed to be enjoying himself. he was having fun. quoted as saying "if you got a cell phone, yo better use it to call the babysitter, because we're going to be up alllll night."
the fashion sense. mm-hmm. sharp white suit. the only man i know that can wear heels and be sexy. that smile... he maintains that serious-ity so much that it's enjoyable to see him smile.
of course, he's from minneapolis. and there's some hometown pride there, too.
highlights for me: his piano pieces, which he ended with the title line up there...the beginning of diamonds and pearls. i just loooooove when he sings in his lower register, which he doesn't do that often. he stopped the song right there, smiled, giggled, and said "i just have too many hits, y'all... i can't play 'em all!" and strapped on a guitar and rocked out to something else (i can't remember what because i was too busy quivering from diamonds and pearls intro). sheila e rocking out with him--esp. on a glamorous life. wendy melvoin flying into the twin cities at 9:45 when the show was to begin at 8:30...to open the show alongside prince.... purple rain. last time i saw him, he ended with it. he sang cream, which is one ofm y favorite, favorite prince songs. he sang satisfied, off 3121, which isn't one of my faves on the record, but damn if it isn't now.
prince has always been in the background of my life. stuck in my head. sung even when i was playing hopscotch. i remember calling and requesting the song 7 when i was babysitting once, and i made it on the radio. i guess prince has made his fans all feel pretty special at one point or another.
oh. i did a video about prince fans waiting in line for The Work, and the local news channel saw it, and i was on the news, too. it's kinda nerdy but in a post about prince, i can't not say that.
and go read found out about me for another side of the coin--one of my friends who joined me that night.

july 8: two years!

william and i had our first date two years ago this past sunday. william started the whole thing; i have to give him the credit. except for a few exchanged looks and smiles, i had no idea that he had any serious interest in me.
after leaving the kilipino's house late one night, he walked me to my car, and i offered to give him a ride to his (it was parked kind of far away). as we drove, he asked me what i was doing that weekend. i told him i was going to my parents' cabin for the weekend. without missing a beat, he said 'so we'll go out to dinner after you get back?' i sputtered a super-not graceful acceptance back. later he said to me, 'not exactly a vote of confidence, kate.'
when i got back home, we did go out on a date. we had dinner at a swanky supper club in northeast minneapolis--jax, for those around town--where we managed to talk about how we both get stomachaches all the time. stimulating conversation! but i think we were both hooked. i remember my dinner--it was halibut covered in a malibu sauce. i got a keepsake--a matchbook, printed with a funny phrase on it that william chose, that goes something along the lines of "one nerdier than the next," since we were in steep competition to see who was the nerdier person. (still a toss up. william: captain of the math team, captain of the engineering team--he even designed the T-shirts. william editorial comment: we went to nationals with engineering team. give me props! also, i designed the french club T-shirts! me: band nerd, marching band lover, winner of spelling bees). we had drinks at the local, a bar in downtown st. paul, until it started raining, and then went back to my house, where we talked late into the night (i swear! it was talking!). although i will tell you that i kissed him first. but he will tell you that he kissed me first. yet another topic of debate between us.
it was a wonderful first date. after awhile you stop numbering the dates, but we've been together ever since--730 days worth of dates.
we still talk late into the night, we still laugh at each other like it's our first date, we still try to get each other's attention. and here we are, careening toward another anniversary. instead of counting up, it's a countdown, and the feeling i get is not unlike that feeling you get a split second before you kiss someone for the first time.

iShenanigan

william showed me this and we both giggled, so i'm giving you the link here.it's about a woman who thinks she's gonna buy out a store of iPhones... and doesn't quite get it right.

feeling minnesota (is not always a bad thing)

these last few days have been classic minnesota-summer beautiful. i know some of my readership resides in cali, and maybe can't even imagine that minnesota is ever warm or beautiful, but i promise it is. in the thick of summer, if it's not monsooning or the evenings aren't infested with mosquitoes, it has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. the green trees, all in full leaf, the flowers blooming, the farmers' market on the weekends---

that reminds me. that's one of my favorite things to do with william on summer weekend mornings, though this summer we haven't gone as often. we get up in the morning, and walk to the farmers' market, pick out our produce for the week--and we always overbuy. cut flowers, potted flowers, herbs, veggies, maybe an egg roll or two. we have a really large hmong population (one of the largest in the nation), and they bring all their goods to the market--leafy greens, bright orange carrots, red radishes, and, if you're lucky, homemade egg rolls. mmmmm. farmers work so hard. i hope they realize when i come to their booth, i'm so excited to take home all the stuff they've worked to grow, and prayed the weather would hold out for them. thanks, farmers' market farmers. you make my happy week.

in any case, the problem with minnesota is that she's mercurial. weather can change in a literal instant. the weather does not care for your picnic or your plans; you cannot plan on a sunny june or a rainy june. same goes for the rest of the months. temps can swing nearly 100 degrees here in a matter of a couple of days. so we haul out the wool sweaters or the tank tops... not entirely surprised even if ti's the middle of january or the end of august. i think maybe we spend so much time rotating away from the sun, either preparing for our loss of summer or sleepwalking our way through winter, that when you get a super summer day.... you try to be outside for about fourteen hours and you see how beautiful this place really is.

i think i'm going on a bit because i missed the annual fourth of july family vacation at my parents cabin this year. it's one of the only weekends i usually get to go these days, since i've become a workin' girl. but this year it was too hard with the wednesday holiday and all the stuff going on in my life. it made me sad that i wasn't watching the pathetic fireworks from across the lake, that i didn't fish with my dad, that i didn't eat corn on the cob with my family, that my mom and i didn't giggle over a book we read. i hope to get up there, where it's so untouched, so raw, so naturally beautiful. every place is a scenic overlook. every drive is a safari of northwoods animals. when i was little, i had a hard time going to the cabin all summer and missing out on softball leagues or pool parties. but looking back now, it was all the education i needed for so many things i think are important, the most obvious being the environment. at my cabin, you can see the arms of the milky way. you can see venus and mars. sometimes you hear fish leaping out of the lake. i've seen otters, deer, foxes, geese, bears, snakes, in my front yard. i once saw a duck push her babies out of a duck house (high up in the boughs of a tree), to the ground. apparently, seriously, these ducks need a sharp blow to the head to function properly, so the moms nest in the trees, and then push them out when it's time to learn to swim. i've seen an eagle teach its baby to fly. come to think of it, i've seen an eagle flying with a snake in its talons (yessss! one less for me to worry about). i've seen spiders so large i didnt' know they existed in north america (also not good for my fears). wild ducks have eaten out of my hand. i have an almost-caught-it story.

so yes, i'm a beach girl. i can't wait to go to hawaii. when i was there, i wondered why we didn't live there. but i grew up on a different kind of beach. one where you might get sunburned on a cloudy, fifty-degree day. but where it smelled so fresh, clean, and wonderful, that if i think really hard, i can smell it. pine, grass, flowers, clean water, sand. that will always be the scent of my childhood.